Clifford Chance advises bank syndicate on alstria office EUR 350m bond issue

International law firm Clifford Chance has advised a banking syndicate comprising BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley and UniCredit as joint bookrunners on the successful placement of a corporate bond of alstria office REIT-AG with a total nominal value of EUR 350 million. The unsecured bond with a coupon of 1.500 percent matures in 2026 and was issued on 23 June 2020 with a BBB rating by Standard & Poor’s. It will be admitted to trading on the regulated market of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Alstria office REIT-AG is the leading real estate manager for German office property with a portfolio of 112 buildings and 1.5 million square meters of lettable space. Clifford Chance regularly advises the bookrunners on alstria’s capital measures. The team advising the banking syndicate comprised partner Sebastian Maerker with associates Wolfgang Ettengruber and Moje Salzmann (all banking and capital markets, Frankfurt).

Christian Keilich, partner and Head of Real Estate at Clifford Chance in Frankfurt, comments: “We are pleased that our market-leading capital markets team around Sebastian Maerker has again advised on a major real estate bond. Bonds are becoming an increasingly relevant financing instrument in the real estate industry as well. In times of a zero-interest policy, they attract a wide range of real estate-related investors with quite attractive yields. For real estate enterprises, they often offer greater flexibility and other advantages over conventional forms of financing. This is not just true for large enterprises like alstria, but also for mid-sized market participants without particular capital market experience, who are increasingly looking at bonds. One example is the EUR 50 million bond issue of real estate developer Groß & Partner on which Clifford Chance advised in February 2020”.