International law firm Clifford Chance has advised Allianz Real Estate GmbH on the establishment of a new joint venture by Allianz with leading European residential real estate company Heimstaden Bostad comprising Allianz’s German residential real estate portfolio. Heimstaden Bostad is investing €243 million in the joint venture as a partner. The transaction is conditional upon merger clearance by the German Federal Cartel Office and is expected to be completed in December 2022.
The new joint venture comprises 38 properties with 3,135 homes located in Düsseldorf, Munich, Cologne, Bonn, Berlin, and Stuttgart with a current occupancy of 97%. Allianz Real Estate and Heimstaden Bostad aim to jointly implement and accelerate a sustainability program within the portfolio, with €83.9 million to be committed to ESG improvements focused on energy optimization to ensure alignment to the CRREM decarbonization pathway.
The joint venture in Germany is the second cooperation between Allianz and Heimstaden Bostad, following the joint venture in Sweden launched in December 2021, whereby Allianz bought into a residential portfolio of 99 properties managed by Heimstaden Bostad.
Christian Keilich, real estate partner at Clifford Chance: “We are delighted to be able to advise our long-standing client Allianz Real Estate on the successfully expanding of their partnership with Heimstaden Bostad. This transaction is a very important sign to the real estate market in Germany that real estate still works despite the noticeable downturn in the sector.”
The Allianz in-house team comprised Markus Trotter-Melitz, Elena Mackh und Mirjam Frick.
The Clifford Chance team comprised partner Christian Keilich, counsel Anne Voigt and senior associates Margret Bootz-Hagen and Philipp Heinzel (Düsseldorf) as well associates Dominik Rauchenberger, David Rahmel and Maximilian Sablotny (both Düsseldorf) (all Real Estate), partner Dominik Engl, counsel Alexander Hagen, associate Robert Schmidt and transaction lawyer Leonie Gebauer (all Tax), partners Marco Simonis and Jan Grabbe (both Funds, all Frankfurt), partner Dimitri Slobodenjuk and senior associate Arne Gayk (both Antitrust, Düsseldorf), partner Saskia Myners, counsel Sascha Nolte and the associates Nils Hülsenbeck and Lynn Nussbaum (all Corporate, Luxembourg), senior associates Natalie Hemberger (Frankfurt) and Nazim Faïd (Paris, both Corporate) as well as counsel Maxime Budzin (Tax, Luxembourg).