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German insurer Allianz plans to expand its property lending business to France and Italy following a first foray into the German market, Allianz Real Estate's chief investment officer Charles Pridgeon said on Wednesday at a presentation during the Mipim trade fair in Cannes.

Allianz started offering direct commercial real estate loans last year by originating a EUR 315 mln loan to fund the purchase of the Deutsche Bank towers in Frankfurt and another EUR 200 mln facility for the purchase of a shopping centre in Berlin.

'We would like to expand our lending activities to France and Italy, which are our major markets in the insurance business,' Pridgeon said, adding that the company will be looking at loans between EUR 50 and EUR 250 mln. The group will also be seeking to strengthen its debt team with the hiring of new staff in other offices, adding to its current debt team in Munich.

'Another way we plan to be active in this sector is through the acquisition of performing loan portfolios from banks seeking to reduce their exposure to property debt,' added CEO Oliver Piani. He declined to comment on whether the company is bidding on the loan package put up for sale by Société Générale, but said this type of operations is 'of interest' for the group.

Ideally, the company would like to underwrite over EUR 1 bn of commercial real estate loans in 2012, Piani said.

On the equity side, Allianz plans to be more active in the retail sector in 2012, with acquisitions planned also in the retail outlet segment. 'We will invest more in retail this year including retail outlets which are performing well. We are favouring markets like France, Germany, the Benelux but we are also looking quite intensively at Scandinavia.'

Allianz closed EUR 2 bn of deals in the property sector last year, consisting of EUR 1.5 bn of equity and EUR 500 mln of debt. The acquisitions are part of the German insurer's plans to lift its exposure to real estate to roughly 6% of its total portfolio.