New record for DIFA: real estate acquisitions total nearly 2 billion euros
New record for DIFA: real estate acquisitions total nearly 2 billion euros
Investment ratio rises to 67.9%
Hamburg-based DIFA Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG invested more during 2003 than in any other year in the company’s history. Part of the Union Investment Group, DIFA acquired 23 properties over the past year both inside and outside Germany, spending a total of 1.95 billion euros. Seventeen properties were acquired for the retail funds DIFA Fund No. 1 and DIFA-GRUND alone, representing a total investment of some 1.82 billion euros. During the same period, the DIFA funds posted net capital inflows of 2.77 billion euros. As the result of concerted acquisition efforts in Germany, elsewhere in Western Europe and in the USA, the specialist investment institution for open-ended real estate funds was able to raise its investment ratio from 59% in the previous year to 67.9%.
In 2003, DIFA completed eight acquisitions in Germany for its retail funds, eight in Europe, and an additional purchase in the USA. Dr. Frank Billand, the DIFA Management Board member responsible for real estate acquisitions in Germany, comments: “For some years now we have been focusing on retail and hotel properties, a policy which enabled DIFA to make record acquisitions totalling 920 million euros in Germany.” Some 87% of DIFA’s domestic investment related to shopping centres and three to five-star business hotels. The purchase of three flourishing shopping centres in Braunschweig (City-Point), Remscheid (Allee-Center) and Darmstadt (Luisen-Center) culminated at the end of the year in the acquisition of the “Fünf Höfe” [“Five Courtyards”] CityQuartier in Munich, which incorporates one of Germany’s most exclusive shopping arcades. “Prime city centre locations are largely immune to economic trends due to the limited amount of space on offer, and provide good opportunities for long-term investment without the need to compromise on quality, both in Germany and elsewhere,” says Dr. Billand, who regards a combination of different uses – restaurants/cafés/bars, retail, hotels, offices, residential and leisure – as offering maximum investment protection.
Process of internationalisation continues
“Over the past year we continued to pursue the policy adopted in the mid 90s of making our holdings more international,” reports Dr. Reinhard Kutscher, the DIFA Management Board member responsible for business outside Germany. The most notable acquisition for DIFA Fund No. 1 in 2003 was the 40,000-square metre Trocadéro CityQuartier development in Paris (at a total cost of some 300 million euros), which saw DIFA expanding this sophisticated product line outside Germany for the first time. Foreign properties were also added to the DIFA-GRUND portfolio, in line with its strategic focus. Cities new to the DIFA-GRUND portfolio are Madrid, Barcelona and the US west coast metropolis of Seattle. A highpoint in 2003 was the acquisition of the Marriott hotel on the Champs-Elysées.
Looking ahead to the next five years, DIFA intends to make around 75 per cent of new investment outside Germany. “As well as the US markets, interesting new locations in Asia-Pacific will play a part in our 2004 investment strategy,” says Dr. Kutscher.
Press contact
DIFA Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG
PR/Communication
Fabian Hellbusch
Caffamacherreihe 8, 20355 Hamburg, Germany
Tel: +49 40 3491 9160, Fax: +49 40 3491 9190
Internet: www.difa.de
E-mail: fabian.hellbusch@difa.de
