Allianz Real Estate debt portfolio grows 15% in 2020

Allianz Real Estate increased its European debt portfolio to €10.6 billion in assets under management in 2020, a 15% year-on-year increase and the firm said that it is ready to increase its loan portfolio in 2021.

The firm invested €1.9 billion over the year, with capital deployed by its Luxembourg-based European debt fund, PAREC, increasing to more than €4 billion, up by a third. Its European debt portfolio is now spread across 12 countries.

In December Allianz Real Estate closed a transaction in the Czech Republic, participating in the €185 million joint refinancing of a logistics and industrial portfolio managed by CEE firm CTP.

“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the respective challenges of 2020, we were able to foster attractive financing opportunities providing improved risk-return profiles triggering our European debt business to continuously grow in size and geographic footprint,” said Allianz Real Estate’s head of European debt Roland Fuchs (pictured above).

“Importantly, we have grown while maintaining our disciplined approach to lending,” he said adding that as well as increasing assets under management, Allianz Real Estate “navigated the crisis with no defaults on loan repayments.”

Allianz Real Estate secured its first third-party client for the Luxembourg-based debt fund in May 2020. German pension fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer co-invested alongside Allianz taking a €300 million stake in a sub-fund valued at €1.2 billion.

€200m ‘Green loan’ helping Paris Arboretum scheme

In July the firm closed a €200 million ‘green loan‘ for the development of Arboretum in Paris, the largest solid-wood office development in Europe. And in the same month it provided UK developer Helical with £139 million to finance the development of Charterhouse Square in London.

And towards the end of the year it loaned €196 million to Blackstone to refinance and refurbish two office buildings and develop a new office building in Amsterdam while Tishman Speyer borrowed €250 million to redevelop the Tour Cristal in Paris into a grade A office.

In September, Allianz Real Estate’s London-based team completed the firm’s largest single-loan debt deal: a £400 million (€440 million) loan for a portfolio of five prime freehold central London offices owned by Lazari Investments.

Allianz Real Estate said that it is positioned to further grow its European debt portfolio and its European debt fund in 2021 and expects to see strong demand for lending among Allianz group insurance companies and third-party institutional investors.