DLA Piper has advised the asset manager Schroder Real Estate on the acquisition of a Hornbach store in the south of Braunschweig. The purchase price within the framework of a share deal amounted to €30 euros. The seller of the property is M7 Real Estate (M7).

The total rented space in the property is roughly 18,000 square metres, with the main sales area accounting for some 11,400 square metres, a garden centre of 5,000 square metres and a building materials centre of approximately 1,600 square metres. Also part of the market are more than 500 car parking spaces. The property is leased to Hornbach on a long-term contract with a term of approximately 14 years. M7 acquired the DIY store in 2015 for the investment fund M7 European Real Estate Investment Partners I (M7 EREIP I) and took over the asset management.

As a globally active asset manager, Schroder Real Estate manages €437.4 billion on behalf of private and institutional investors worldwide and provides its customers with a broad range of pan-European real estate products such as open and closed real estate funds, special funds and funds of funds or listed REITs, and real estate equity funds.

The DLA Piper team advising on the deal was led by Frankfurt-based Real Estate partner Fabian Muehlen, and Cologne-based Corporate partner Dr Cornelius Frie. They were supported in Frankfurt by Real Estate counsel Christian Lonquich , Tax counsel Dr Raimund Behnes, Tax senior associate Gitta Gehring and Real Estate senior associate Dr Dennis Lepczyk. Further members of the team included Cologne-based Real Estate associate Dr Heiner Feldhaus and Frankfurt-based Real Estate transaction lawyer Konstantin Decker-Horz. The DLA Piper team in Luxembourg was managed by Finance and Projects partner, Xavier Guzman.