German fund GLL reportedly seeks office buildings in Bucharest’s CBD

German company GLL Real Estate Partners is interested in acquiring new office buildings on the Bucharest market, similar to the Victoria Center already in their portfolio, Profit.ro reported.

GLL took over the 8,300-sqm office building Victoria Center in downtown Bucharest in 2015 for EUR 27 million. It had tenants such as Citibank, JLL, AON, AIG, and Starbucks at the time of the deal.

GLL’s appetite for acquisitions is generated by some of the company’s decision-makers not agreeing with the sale of Floreasca Park to Chinese conglomerate Fosun earlier this year for EUR 100 mln. GLL purchased the building in 2015 for roughly the same amount it received from Fosun (EUR 100 mln). It was generating rent revenues of EUR 9.6 mln per year.

As a rule, large-scale transactions (like the EUR 100 mln sale of Floreasca park) unlock money that can be reinvested, especially for investors already familiar with the market, Profit.ro explained.

GLL targets quality buildings in the central business district (CBD), and it is very likely to find an opportunity, a source familiar with the market told Profit.ro, adding, however, that “GLL is hard to please.”

The German fund, set up in 2000 by three directors of HypoVereinsbank, in partnership with Lead Lease Corporation and the Generali insurance group, was taken over in 2018 by the investment platform Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, a division of Macquarie Group, with shareholders such as Vanguard Group , BlackRock Fund Advisors, and Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund.

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