“However, we believe the
G-REIT structure will attract
a crowd provided the sector’s
firms have sufficient size, active
management, good governance
and disclosure, and, above all,
an attractive dividend yield,” he
continues.
As in other countries with
REIT structures, market adoption takes time, says Nieuwland.
In Germany, recent volatility
and the limited number of well-regarded companies may explain
the relative lack of interest in
the sector. But for long-term
investors, returns from either
direct real estate ownership
or shares in G-REITs should
converge over time. In fact,
returns for property shares have
Elamine
VITAL STATISTICS:
alstria Office REIT-AG
ADDRESS: Bäckerbreitergang
75, 20355 Hamburg
PHONE: +49-40-226 341 329
WEB SITE:
www.alstria.de
MANAGEMENT TEAM:
Olivier Elamine, CEO;
Alexander Dexne, CFO
2009 FINANcIAlS
NET lOSS: € 79. 7 million
NET RENTAl INcOME:
€92.0 million
FuNDS FROM OPERATIONS:
€ 32. 7 million
OccuPANcy: 94.3%
generally exceeded those of a
direct portfolio due to more active management by the public
companies and development
undertaken by the companies
at the appropriate point in the
cycle, Nieuwland notes.
“The advantage to the inves-
tor of entering and exiting a po-
sition should not be understated,
as this is often not possible in a
direct investment vehicle,” as-
serts Nieuwland. “Open-end
funds must maintain a liquid-
ity facility in order to allow for
redemptions; this substantially
limits the amount of capital that
can be invested into the prop-
erty, while the facility is never
sufficient if there is a ‘run on the
fund,’ as seen recently.”
The first two companies to
achieve REIT status in Ger-
many were alstria office REIT-
AG (FSE: AOX), which en-
tered the market in April 2007,
and Fair Value REI T-AG
(FSE: FVI), which became a
REIT in December 2007. Both
managed to list as REITs before
European capital markets froze,
limiting the segment for years
to follow.
alstria Office REIT-AG
alstria is an internally managed
REIT solely focused on acquiring, owning and managing
office real estate in Germany.
Based in Hamburg, alstria today
is the second-largest listed office company in Germany. Its
current portfolio is valued at
approximately EUR 1. 8 billion
(U.S. $2.4 billion) and comprises 88 office properties totaling about 10 million square feet
of leasable space.
alstria was created in 2006
following the acquisition of a
EUR 800 million (U.S. $1.1
billion) portfolio from the state
Schaich
VITAL STATISTICS:
Fair Value REIT-AG
ADDRESS: Leopoldstrasse
244, 80807 München
PHONE: +49-89-92 92 815 - 10
WEB SITE:
www.fvreit.de
MANAGEMENT TEAM:
Dr. Heinz Rehkugler, Chairman of the Supervisory Board;
Frank Schaich, Chairman of
the Management Board &
CEO; Christian Hopfer, Vice
Chairman of the Supervisory
Board; Oscar Kienzle, Member of the Supervisory Board
2009 FINANcIAlS
NET INcOME: € 6 million
NET RENTAl INcOME:
€ 10. 8 million
FuNDS FROM OPERATIONS:
€ 2. 9 million
OccuPANcy: 95.5%
of Hamburg in a sale-leaseback
deal, a notable public outsourc-ing transaction. Its focus on asset
operations as well as selective
sales and refinancing allowed alstria to navigate through a challenging economic environment.
At the end of 2009, the company
had strengthened its balance
sheet, while revenues and FFO
was impacted by higher financial
costs, as well as acceleration in
asset management activities, says
Olivier Elamine, CEO of alstria.
