HSH Nordbank to finance GWB’s purchase
Hamburg/Kiel, June 4, 2007 - HSH Nordbank AG will finance GWB Immobilien AG’s purchase of the “Königspassage” shopping center in Lübeck. The loan amounts to about EUR 32 million. GWB, based in Siek near Hamburg, was established in 1992 and has been market-listed since October 2006.
The property has nearly 15,000 square meters of floor space and is thus the largest shopping mall in the center of Lübeck. It was opened in 1994 and has up to now been managed by ECE.
GWB Immobilien AG has specialized in planning, developing, building and leasing retail space, focusing on shopping centers and real estate with specialist stores in medium-sized cities and smaller towns. GWB has completed about 50 projects since it was established. In addition to selling developed properties on, the company also plans to accumulate a property portfolio of its own. GWB thus intends to purchase more existing shopping centers as well as to update them and optimize the tenant structure.
“GWB has occupied a growth niche in the retail property market in which it operates very profitably,” said Claudio Lagemann, head of HSH Nordbank’s real estate business. “We are pleased to be able to assist this ambitious real estate company on its expansion course.”
Although the German retail market as a whole is forecast to register flat sales over the long term, Lagemann explains that: “Within this market, shopping centers that combine various types of business under one roof will be among the winners.” He said that there is steady demand for such shopping centers and, because of just a moderate number of new ones being built, little medium-term threat of an increase in vacancy rates. However, there is need especially for the layout and types of stores in older shopping centers to be updated to increase their appeal.
HSH Nordbank AG is a strong regional bank in Northern Europe with total assets of € 200 billion. Some 4,400 of the bank’s employees provide corporate and high net-worth clients around the globe with premium bank products and services. In its core region of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, it is the market leader in the corporate customer segment. HSH Nordbank is an acknowledged partner of the capital markets and international sector specialist. Its main focus is on transportation and real estate. In fact, HSH Nordbank is the world’s largest provider of ship finance and covers the entire value chain in the transportation segment. In the area of real estate, HSH Nordbank is one of the strongest banks in Germany, acting as a provider of services relating to all aspects of real estate.
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