HSH Nordbank finances office real estate portfolio in western Germany

Hamburg/Kiel, July 17, 2017 - HSH Nordbank is providing the Cording Real Estate Group (Cording) with finance of € 93 million to purchase a real estate portfolio. Cording is acquiring the portfolio on behalf of a joint venture between Danish fund manager Sparinvest Property Investors and family office Esas Properties from Turkey. The purchase price totals around € 143 million.

The ten properties with a total leasable area of around 103,000 square metres are situated at eight well-established office locations in western Germany, including Hamburg and Cologne. Around 90 percent of the total area is used as office space; the occupancy rate is 97 percent. Tenants include such well-known listed companies such as Deutsche Telekom, BASF and Nokia.

Headquartered in London, the Cording Real Estate Group is an independent real estate business with a focus on Germany, the UK and the Benelux countries which provides services covering investment management, asset management and property management. Headed by Chairman John Partridge and Chief Executive Officer Rodney Bysh, Cording has grown significantly in its target markets and currently has around € 2.4 billion in management mandates. "We are active in Germany because the local office real estate market is attractive due to a lack of new project developments and because we expect rents to continue rising," said Rodney Bysh, CEO of Cording. "We are pleased to have secured HSH Nordbank as a financing partner that knows the real estate markets across Germany very well and brings considerable experience."

Peter Axmann, Head of Real Estate Clients of HSH Nordbank, said: "In Cording, we have gained a competent and well-versed new client with excellent knowledge of the real estate business across Europe." In addition to assisting international investors in their exposures in Germany, the core business of the Bank's Real Estate division includes commercial real estate finance across Germany.