German Fund Manager Eyes Asia Properties

Source : The Business Times, September 25, 2007

Union Investment looks to quadruple its regional portfolio over a 4-year period

GERMAN fund manager Difa Deutsche Immobilien Fonds (recently renamed Union Investment) is looking to quadruple its property portfolio in Asia over the next four years, its Asia-Pacific head has told BT in an interview.

'Right now, we have 10 properties worth about 500 million euros (S$1,055 million) in Asia,' said the group's Asia-Pacific managing director, Steffen Wolf.

'We would like to grow the portfolio value to at least two billion euros or so.' he added.

Union Investment, which owns some 15 billion euros worth of real estate across the world, last year turned its attention to Asia in search of attractive acquisitions.

Since September last year, it has acquired 10 properties in the region, including six residential projects in Japan and two office properties in South Korea.

In Singapore, Union Investment has bought two properties.

In January, it acquired Vision Crest's office block and the House of Tan Yeok Nee next door in the Penang Road/Clemenceau Avenue area for a total of $260 million from mainboard-listed property group Wing Tai.

Union Investment is now working on more acquisitions in Japan, China and Singapore, Mr Wolf said.

'We are also closely looking at Malaysia, India and Thailand,' he added.

Right now, the group's focus is on the key cities in all the countries, he said.

Asia, said Mr Wolf, is 'very strategic' to Union Investment.

The group has traditionally invested in Europe and the US, but has of late been building up its Asian team in Germany.

The logical next step was to set up a physical presence in the region, and so the group opened an office in Singapore in October 2006.

Right now, the office has just two people, but Mr Wolf wants to grow the team to six or eight by the end of the year, he said.

In Singapore, the group is looking at office properties as well as residential, retail and hospitality assets for acquisition, Mr Wolf said.

The group ideally has to acquire finished, freestanding and already leased-out buildings. It is, for example, not allowed to take on the risks involved with developing a greenfield project.

Its business model is based on collecting rents and distributing them to shareholders.

But Union Investment will not rush into acquisitions, Mr Wolf said.

The cash-rich company is in Asia for the long haul, and will be willing to wait for good acquisition opportunities to come by, rather than compete head-on with more aggressive bidders.

'We can ride through market cycles,' Mr Wolf said. 'We are not affected by crises such as the sub-prime crisis. We have a lot of cash.'