Allianz today announced that it has acquired two office developments in Prague, the firm’s first office equity investments in the Czech Republic, for a total consideration of approx. EUR110 million.
Allianz has acquired the Trimaran and Element buildings from the Austrian developer S+B Gruppe AG. The transaction was carried out by Allianz Real Estate, the EUR60 billion real estate investment and asset manager of the Allianz Group, on behalf of several Allianz insurance companies.
The two assets, which cover 28,000 sqm in total, are located in the Pankrác office submarket with excellent access to public and private transportation and a good supply of cafes and restaurants in the neighbouring Arcady Pankrác shopping centre.
In March 2018, Allianz Real Estate opened an office in Vienna and appointed Thomas Villadsen to the new role of Director of Austria and Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) to expedite the firm’s presence across the CEE region and build on established assets in countries such as Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. This latest real estate deal is the second for Allianz in the Czech Republic: in October 2017, it part-refinanced a EUR160 million logistics portfolio for CTP Property N.V., one of the leading logistics companies in the region.
Thomas Villadsen, Head of Austria and CEE, Allianz Real Estate, said: “The Trimaran and Element assets represent a great opportunity to invest into Prague. The economy in the Czech Republic, and especially Prague, has shown positive momentum in recent years and the outlook remains promising in our view. The office market is favourable, with declining vacancy rates, strong tenant demand, stable prime rents and decreasing net initial yield, particularly in the Pankrác submarket. We already have in place a number of long-term tenants and we firmly expect these new build, high specification quality assets to attract strong demand from businesses.”
Annette Kröger, CEO North & Central Europe at Allianz Real Estate, said: “I’m delighted that we can announce our first equity deal in Prague as we build out our CEE presence and further diversify our allocation in Europe. Being closer to the market through our Vienna office has been key to realising this transaction and we are focused on capitalising with additional deals in the Czech Republic and the wider region in 2019.”