ASG Fund acquires Germany’s largest specialist developer of senior housing, WI-IMMOGroup

Jersey (UK), October 6th, 2016 – A fund managed by ActivumSG Capital Management, the value-add firm focused on European real estate investments, has acquired Germany’s largest and fastest growing specialist developer of senior housing in a strategy to capture the opportunities presented by the country’s ageing population. ASG’s Fund III has purchased a 94% interest in WIIMMOGroup, a private company based in Hildesheim, near Hanover, that generates annual sales of around €90 million.

 

European Union statistics show that 21% of Germany’s population is currently aged 65 or more and this proportion will grow to 28.1% by 2030. Care providers will need to build additional space to accommodate 300,000 more of its elderly citizens by 2030, according to German government projections.

 

Saul Goldstein, Founder and Managing Partner of ASG, said: “Germany’s ageing population presents a compelling investment opportunity that we’re grabbing for our investors through WI-IMMOGroup’s market-leading platform. There’s a lot of investor interest in senior housing in Germany and the competition is pushing up asset prices, which is why we have gone down the developer route. It’s a strategy the fund has also pursued in Germany’s mainstream housing market, through its investments in formart and GRK.”

 

Founded in 2008, WI-IMMOGroup sells units in care homes and retirement complexes that it has either developed itself or on behalf of operators and owners. The company currently has a pipeline of 22 projects.Frank Winkel, Founder and CEO of WI-IMMOGroup, said: “With the support of our new shareholder we are looking to broaden our footprint right across Germany and to step up the number of care-home units that we deliver to around 1,000 a year, from about 650 currently.”

 

The investment in WI-IMMOGroup means that ASG Fund III has committed nearly all of the €380 million of equity that it raised from investors by its final close in March 2014. Aside from acquiring German residential developers formart and GRK, the fund’s other investments include: real estate loans, residential developments, office and retail properties. All of the assets are located in either Germany or Spain.

 

Advising the fund on the WI-IMMOGroup purchase were Noerr LLP and Deloitte as well as leading industry consultant Terranus.