Immobilien has acquired a 鈧�100m retail property portfolio in Germany from Marathon Asset Management.
The 27 assets were purchases on behalf of Patrizia Retail Opportunity SCS, a core-plus fund launched in 2016.
The portfolio, which comprises around 55,600sqm of total lettable space is made up of retail parks and grocery stores, 98% of which are anchored by food tenants.
Germany鈥檚 four largest food retailers 鈥� Rewe Group, Edeka-Verbund, Schwarz-Gruppe and Aldi 鈥� provide three quarters of the rental income.
Occupancy is at 99%, with a weighted average lease term of 9.2 years.
As a result of the acquisition, Patrizia manages more than 鈧�8.3bn of European retail assets and 鈧�5.1bn of German retail assets.
Daniel Herrmann, head of fund management retail at Patrizia, said: 鈥淭he acquisition of this portfolio, with its potential for sustained income growth, will significantly optimise the risk-return profile of the fund.鈥�
He added: 鈥淎t the same time, we are acquiring modern, well located properties with excellent tenants from the food retail sector and which occupy a dominant position in their respective catchment areas.鈥�
The announcement coincided with the release of a report by CBRE that showed that transaction volumes in German retail property have stablised after falling last year.
The first quarter of 2019 saw 鈧�2bn channeled into the sector, while prime yields of retail parks dropped by 0.35 percentage points to 4.15% when compared to Q1 last year.
鈥淭he stabilisation of the transaction volume shows that many investors still consider retail property to be an attractive asset class,鈥� said Jan Dirk Poppinga, co-head of retail investment at CBRE Germany.
鈥淎s in recent quarters, retail warehouses and retail parks are high on investors鈥� shopping list.鈥�
Retail parks and warehouses took the largest share (37%) of transactions, followed closely by shopping centres at 35%.
