ASG to become the sole owner of Instone Real Estate, a leading German residential developer

Jersey (UK), October 24th, 2017 – ActivumSG Capital Management Limited (ASG), a value-add firm focused on European real estate investments, has acquired the remaining shares in Instone Real Estate Leipzig GmbH (former GRK Holding (GRK)) from GRK founder and shareholder Steffen Göpel via a fund it manages. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

ASG acquired a majority stake in GRK from Steffen Göpel in December 2015 and decided to combine it with the former formart GmbH & Co. KG (formart) under the brand of Instone Real Estate Group (Instone Real Estate). In the course of the integration of both companies, Steffen Göpel now sold his remaining shares in GRK to ASG. As a result, ASG will become the sole owner of Instone Real Estate upon closing of this transaction, which is expected to occur in November 2017.

Steffen Göpel said: “Strongly supported by our shareholder ASG, I am very proud of the successful development of GRK becoming a leading residential developer in Leipzig over the last years. I am convinced that combining GRK and formart under Instone Real Estate has further strengthened the sustainable success of this strong German real estate company. With its project portfolio, identified acquisition opportunities, sourcing capabilities and proven track record, Instone Real Estate is ideally positioned to benefit from profitable growth in the future.”

Instone Real Estate is a leading nationwide residential developer focusing on Germany’s key metropolitan regions. The company operates a sophisticated process and control driven platform with more than 26 years of experience. Instone Real Estate was formed out of formart GmbH & Co. KG, one of the biggest German residential real estate developers, and GRK Holding in June 2017 by bringing together both companies under the brand of Instone Real Estate. Instone Real Estate annually plans, builds and markets an average of 1,000 residential units for owner-occupiers, for private buy-to-let and for institutional investors, and has a workforce of 236 full-time employees across seven branches in Germany. Instone Real Estate’s attractive project portfolio with well-spread completion timelines currently has an estimated sales volume of more than EUR 3 billion.

Saul Goldstein, Founder and Managing Partner of ASG, said: “We are very grateful to Steffen for his tremendous efforts in developing GRK to a leading real estate player in the Leipzig market and for trusting us as an investor. GRK, with its know-how, excellent process-management as well as its local orientation has been an ideal addition to our portfolio. Now that GRK and formart were brought together under the umbrella of Instone Real Estate, we established a leading nationwide operating real estate developer platform with strong and profitable growth prospects in the future.”

Advising the fund on the transaction was Noerr LLP.