HIH Invest Acquires Three-Asset Portfolio for its Local Retail Fund from Gold

HIH Invest Real Estate acquired the so-called Oyster Portfolio of three grocery-anchored retail properties from the international investment entity Gold Tree. The transaction took the form of an asset deal on behalf of “Perspektive Einzelhandel: Fokus Nahversorgung,” an open-ended special AIF focusing on grocery retail real estate.

The largest of the portfolio assets is the LudwigArkaden retail park on Potsdamer Strasse in Ludwigsfelde, a town in Brandenburg just south of Berlin, whose three building sections add up to a lettable area of 14,564 sq m. Completed in 2016, it is anchored by an Edeka supermarket and home to a total of 19 widely diversified tenants. Its catchment area includes southern Berlin and Potsdam. Visitors have the use of over 400 parking spaces on the premises. The site area equals 28,588 sq m.

The property in Rödental, a town near Coburg in northern Bavaria, is the Anna-Park convenience centre on Oeslauer Strasse and provides 7,148 sq m of lettable area plus 222 parking spots. It is anchored by a Rewe supermarket, an Aldi discount supermarket and a Rossmann drugstore. The two building envelopes of the Anna-Park retail venue were built in 2016 and 2019, respectively, on a plot measuring 19,904 sq m.

The Kaufland hypermarket on Hildesheimer Strasse in Goslar, a town in Lower Saxony, was constructed on a plot of 15,263 sq m in 2016. Kaufland occupies around 5,500 sq m of floor area, and has a remaining lease term of 14.5 years. The hypermarket comes with a post-checkout area, parts of which are rented to concessionaires by Kaufland.

The three portfolio assets are fully tenant-occupied. The portfolio’s cash flow is secured for the longer term by a WAULT of 10 years. The four biggest tenants—these being Edeka, Rewe, Aldi and Kaufland—account for more than half of the total rent revenues. Jens Nagelsmeier, Head of Transaction Management Retail & Healthcare, commented: “The sites are located in three different states and therefore well diversified. At the same time, they share certain characteristics. Built between 2016 and 2019, the properties are virtually as-new while also being in excellent structural and visual condition. They are already well-established within their respective home towns, not least because their location next to main arteries implies convenient transport access.

The “Perspektive Einzelhandel: Fokus Nahversorgung” open-ended institutional fund is still going through its investment period. With the acquisition of the Oyster Portfolio, its fund portfolio now includes 24 assets in a combined value of more than half a billion euros, LudwigArkaden in Ludwigsfelde being the largest property. The fund invests in retail parks and convenience centres, anchored by food retailers in economically stable locations in Germany, each worth between ten to 40 million euros. The annual dividend yield is somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5 percent.

The pre-acquisition legal and tax due diligences on behalf of HIH Invest were conducted by the law firm of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek. Gold Tree was supported by Montano Real Estate as asset and transaction manager and received legal counsel from the Noerr law firm. BNP Paribas Real Estate acted as transaction advisor to the seller.