Linklaters advised the Belgian AG Insurance Group and its real estate subsidiary AG Real Estate on the acquisition of a real estate portfolio consisting of German retail properties. The assets changed hands by way of a complex share deal; the sellers were Capital & Regional plc and Ares Management. With a volume of 350 million euros, the transaction is the largest acquisition of a German retail property portfolio over the last five years.

The AG Insurance Group, with its seat in Brussels, is the portfolio’s main investor. Further investors are the Dutch fund manager PGGM as well as the German Retail Box Fund of the British Rockspring Property Investment Managers.

The retail property portfolio consists of 23 properties with a lettable area of 275,000 square metres and a total annual rent of approximately 28 million euros. 92 percent of the properties are located in western Germany, 98 percent are currently occupied. One of the major tenants is the Metro Group, which owns the “real” supermarket chain; other tenants are Rewe, Kaufland, Edeka and Globus.

AG Real Estate is a wholly owned subsidiary of the AG Insurance Group. Its business includes asset and property management, development and construction management, public private partnerships as well as real estate finance and car park management via its subsidiary Interparking. AG Real Estate employs a staff of over 200 and currently manages a 5.5 billion euros investment portfolio .

A Linklaters team led by Dr Timo Engelhardt (Corporate, Munich) advised on the transaction. The team also includes Wolfram Krüger (Real Estate, Frankfurt), Yves Moreau (Real Estate, Brüssel), Andreas Schaflitzl (Tax, München), Tina Hinz (Corporate, Frankfurt), Dr. Florian Harder (Corporate, München), Stephanie Wiesner (Tax, München), Dr. Niclas von Woedtke, Martina Farkas, Keve Kovács (all Corporate, München), Maximilian Zembala (Banking, Frankfurt), Dr. Dorthe Bauer, Bettina Hulde und Dr. Sebastian Binder (all Tax, München).