2011 looks to be a banner year for CORPUS SIREO, Germany’s leading asset management service provider. Especially the second semester was characterised by extraordinarily positive developments. Indeed, the company expects its earnings before taxes to come to more than 40 million Euros, which would be the second-best result in the company’s history.

Sales Enhance Flexibility for Co-Investments
In Berlin, degewo AG and GESOBAU AG, both housing companies owned by the State of Berlin, jointly acquired the “CORPUS SIREO Investment Residential No. 31 GmbH” from CORPUS SIREO. As a result, 4,680 apartments and 59 commercial units all over Berlin changed hands, bringing the company’s residential holdings in Berlin down to around 1,300 units today. The majority of apartments sold date back to the 1920s and 1930s, and are in unusually good repair. To 55 percent, the buildings are listed as protected monuments.

Another residential package was sold in the town of Meerbusch near Düsseldorf, facilitated by the group’s in-house estate agency. The GWH Gemeinnützige Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH Hessen housing company acquired an estate including 768 apartments in the city’s Büderich district from CORPUS SIREO. As of 2012, GWH will take over the management of the apartments as long-term commitment.

“Two major sales and other, smaller-scale dispositions in the course of the year substantially boosted our equity base. This has meant an enormous increase in flexibility for CORPUS SIREO. We intend to exploit it to step up our co-investment activities and thus to generate new asset management assignments,” said Ralph Günther, CEO of CORPUS SIREO Holding.

Investor Service Business Poised to Grow
CORPUS SIREO pursues an active growth strategy, especially in its investment and asset management divisions. For the asset management business, in which the company manages properties directly held by institutional investors and financing banks as well as owner-occupied holdings held, e.g., by industrial or service companies, CORPUS SIREO already acquired a volume of more than one billion Euros in assets under management in the year just concluded.

Among the most important of the acquired mandates is the asset management account for the “Neue Deutsche Bank Türme” office scheme in Frankfurt am Main, as well as two marketing accounts for private-equity investor Cerberus, and the AXA Investment Managers fund investment company.

Said Ingo Hartlief, CEO of CORPUS SIREO Asset Management GmbH: “Many investors are currently seeking the support of asset managers having locations not just in Germany’s Class A cities but further afield, too, as well as a strong track record, especially in sales.”

By the end of the year, CORPUS SIREO has a total of 14.5 million square metres in real estate space currently worth 15.4 billion Euros under management. Included in the sum are nearly 1.6 billion Euros in managed fund assets. This makes CORPUS SIREO Germany’s leading service provider in real asset management.

More Business with International Players
CORPUS SIREO seeks to grow specifically in the demanding international client segment. The company gathered ample experience in this field by managing the Germany portfolios of international investors for some years now. To support its foreign clientele, which often lack proprietary management structures in Germany, the company operates a total of eleven branch offices across Germany and in Luxembourg.

Said Ingo Hartlief: “The markets have gathered momentum again, and property owners increasingly appreciate that they will not realise the potential of their real estate without an excellent asset management that will pinpoint and master its risks. This is where specialists come in who draw on diversified experiences, and who are regionally embedded.”

Investment Management Division in Luxembourg Launches Second Healthcare Fund
In mid-December, the company’s investment management division launched its second nursing home fund, “CORPUS SIREO Health Care II,” as pool of segregated assets via an investment service company. The target volume for the German specialist fund is 300 million Euros, of which 150 million Euros represent equity capital. Based on a projected purchase price multiple of 13.3 to 13.5 times the annual net rent, the fund will target an annual distribution of 6.5 percent.

Said Dr. Christian Schütz, Managing Director of CORPUS SIREO Investment Management: “In addition to our market leadership position in the healthcare asset class, we are currently preparing other attractive fund products that are supposed to be placed in 2012.”

Housing Developer and Estate Agency Poised for Selective Growth
CORPUS SIREO intends to pursue a pinpoint growth strategy with its housing development division, which is currently selling about 600 residential units within the framework of eight construction projects. With an annual construction volume of around 500 housing units, CORPUS SIREO Projektentwicklung Wohnen GmbH is Germany’s second largest housing developer, according to a BulwienGesa analysis. At the moment, the company is developing projects in Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Darmstadt, Mainz, and Munich.

Ralph Günther, CEO of CORPUS SIREO Holding, elaborates: “We are pursuing a selective growth path. This means that we intend to keep growing specifically through housing construction and in markets where we have already met with success.”

The same is true for the company’s brokerage division whose job – as partner of the Sparkasse savings banks in Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt – is to sell and market real estate on behalf of private investors and development companies. In 2011, for instance, more than 1,000 notarised deeds were brokered. Moreover, CORPUS SIREO Makler GmbH, the group’s estate agency, successfully brokers the sale of investment real estate to institutional investors. Indeed, the company counts among the country’s leading estate agencies.

Positive Annual Accounts Expected
At the end of the year, Sparkasse KölnBonn will moreover increase its interest in CORPUS SIREO to 50 percent. Having obtained the approval of the other shareholders, it will acquire the 25-percent stake currently held by THITA GmbH & Co. KG from Michael Zimmer. As a result, Germany’s leading real estate asset manager will be fully owned by savings banks, the other shareholders – beside Sparkasse Köln – being Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf and Frankfurter Sparkasse with 25-percent stakes each.
Lars von Lackum, Deputy CEO of CORPUS SIREO Holding GmbH & Co. KG, commented: “We are very satisfied with the year 2011. With more than 40 million Euros in earnings before taxes, we expect to see the second-best result in our company’s history.

ABOUT CORPUS SIREO
With a total of 14.5 million square metres of commercial and residential property space worth 15.4 billion Euros in assets under management, the Cologne-based CORPUS SIREO employs a staff of around 560 professionals at eleven locations in Germany and Luxembourg. This makes the company Germany’s biggest asset manager. The company is also the market leader in regard to the number of asset classes managed: Serving seven asset classes (office, residential, retail, logistics, healthcare, production/technology, others), CORPUS SIREO offers the broadest spectrum of all German asset managers. Accordingly, even rival companies rate CORPUS SIREO as the chief competitor on the market. (These are the findings of the “Real Estate Asset Management Report 2011" by Bell Management Consultants.)
To investors, banks, and companies with proprietary real estate portfolios, CORPUS SIREO offers investment management and asset management services along the entire real estate supply chain. Moreover, the company acts as broker and project developer for owner-occupiers and investors.

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