Financial Times - September 29, 2003
Deutsche Bank is nearing an agreement to sell €1bn ($1.14bn) of its European property portfolio to Blackstone, the private equity group, in what would be one of the biggest property divestitures by a German company.
According to people close to the deal, Blackstone, which last year raised €800m to invest in western Europe, would buy about 50 Deutsche offices and branches in cities including Barcelona, Brussels, Milan, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Düsseldorf, Munich and Zurich. About two-thirds of the properties are in Germany.
The disposal is part of plans by Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche, to free up capital from non-core activities."
The deal is expected to include a new building currently under construction in Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank's new investment banking headquarters in Frankfurt, the old Deutsche Bank banking hall in Milan and a regional stock exchange building in Germany.
The bank would continue to occupy most of the properties on long leases, while the rest would be on shorter leases with the understanding that Deutsche would probably vacate them when the leases expired.
Terms of the deal are understood to have been agreed, and Deutsche Bank's supervisory board is expected to vote on the sale in the next few weeks. Deutsche declined to comment and Blackstone could not be reached.
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Monday, September 29, 2003
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