REIT Snapshot
Fair Value office building in langen, Germany.
November 2007 and obtaining
REIT status one month later.
About 80 percent of Fair Value’s
current portfolio was formed
by acquiring limited partnership interests from thousands of
private investors in commercial
properties. The other 20 percent consists of properties primarily used as bank branches,
acquired through direct sale-leaseback transactions with a
savings bank.
Frank Schaich, chairman and
CEO of Fair Value, described
Fair Value’s business model
is unique in Germany in that it
consists of both direct invest-
ments in commercial proper-
ties and indirect investments
in closed-end real estate funds
by offering a mixture of swaps
of limited partnership-interest
for shares of the company and/
or cash. These transactions are
a legal and fiscal complexity
that limits heavy competition,
Schaich says.
Lorna Pappas is a regular contributor to REIT.
