Investcorp Grows Germany Presence With $97M Buy

Airport Centre

Investcorp has increased its holdings in Germany with the acquisition of Airport Centre, an approximately 376,700-square-foot, mixed-use office asset in Hamburg. The Bahrain-based global alternative investment manager purchased the property in a transaction valued at €85 million, or approximately $96.7 million. The seller was Ares Management, per a Savills report.

Airport Centre sits along Flughafenstrasse in the Fuhlsbüttel quarter of Hamburg-Nord near the Hamburg Airport, the fifth-largest airport in the world. The five-story building first opened its doors in 1993 and consists of 75 percent office space and 25 percent light industrial space. Currently, 32 businesses operating in various sectors grace the tenant roster. Montano Asset Management, which participated in the transaction as a minority joint venture partner to Investcorp, will act as asset manager of the property.

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With the acquisition of Airport Centre, Investcorp has increased its assets under management in Germany to a total value of €325 million, or approximately $369.6 million. The country’s office sector is thriving, with the top six markets—Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich—having recorded an average 4.2 vacancy rate in the first quarter of 2019, according to Savills. Despite a deteriorating economic outlook and approximately 12.9 million square feet of deliveries scheduled this year, absorption in the six markets is expected to remain robust through the first quarter of 2020, spurred in part by the addition of nearly 40,000 new employees.

Beyond Deutschland

Investcorp’s focus extends beyond Germany’s borders to a bevy of leading markets in Europe, where its AUM currently totals a half-billion euros, or roughly $568.65 million. The firm’s primary European targets include the U.K., French, Dutch and Benelux markets, with a concentration on industrial and office properties.

Investcorp also continues to be heavily active in the U.S., outdoing its $300 million purchase of a 4.5 million-square-foot industrial portfolio in 2018 with the $370 million acquisition of a 2,615-unit multifamily collection in June, marking its largest U.S. portfolio investment in the last decade. Investcorp’s other year-to-date purchases in the U.S. include a $170 million, 1.4 million-square-foot group of distribution centers and a $330 million, 2,510-unit multifamily portfolio.