Norton Rose Fulbright has advised the banking consortium led by Citigroup and J.P. Morgan, as joint global coordinators, on the initial public offering of Godewind Immobilien AG (Godewind). Listing will be on the Regulated Market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Prime Standard) with start of trading of the shares on or about April 5, 2018.

Godewind, real estate company, specialising in German commercial real estate, intends to raise gross proceeds of €450 million by selling 112,500,000 newly issued shares under the IPO. The offer also includes an upsize option with an additional 25,000,000 newly issued shares which would lead to total gross proceeds of up to €550 million. The members of the Management Board and Supervisory Board of Godewind have committed themselves to participating in the IPO and providing further investors in the IPO with an aggregate investment of €50 million.

The proceeds from the issue will serve to build up a real estate portfolio, which should grow to a volume of around €3 billion in the medium term. The company has already identified acquisition opportunities worth €3.7 billion.

Dr Benedikt Gillessen, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, commented:

“Blind pool IPOs have been considered a number of times in the German real estate sector in recent years. After considerable preparation work, we are delighted to have advised on and implemented the first ever transaction of this kind in Germany."

The team advising on the IPO was led by Dr Benedikt Gillessen with support from senior associate Jan-Peter Heise, associate Denis Dräger (all capital markets, Frankfurt), partner Thomas Vita, of counsel Kevin Connolly, associate Kayla Kirk (all US capital markets, London), of counsel Oliver Polster (corporate, Frankfurt), partner Tino Duttiné (Frankfurt), partner Michael P. Flamenbaum (New York) and associate Sarah Slavik-Schulz (Hamburg, all tax) as well as of counsel Tobias Block (real estate, Hamburg).