Global insurance giant Allianz has withdrawn its $350 million Allianz Global Investors European Property Trust from the market.
Yesterday, Allianz GI Australia’s chief executive Cristobal Mendez de Vigo said the capital raising was fully underwritten and that the group successfully raised $353.2 million from investors.
However, de Vigo told Australian Property Journal that the withdrawal of the AGIEPT was not due to the volatility in the marketplace or market conditions in Europe.
de Vigo said the withdrawal of AGIEPT was a result of Allianz GI conducting a global review of Real Estate Investment Trusts, which includes Australia.
“Allianz has decided to take a step back to view the global REITs situation,” de Vigo told Australian Property Journal yesterday.
“In Europe, there are a number of countries legislating for REITs and we also have the emerging REITs market in Asia.
“Allianz has decided to look at our REITs strategy from a global perspective and obviously Australia is a key component of the global marketplace,” he added.
de Vigo said the investors’ funds will be refunded.
While Australian investors’ appetite for REITs shows no signs of abating, particularly for global assets, de Vigo was unable to speculate when Allianz will re-launch a similar REITs product or when the global review will be concluded.
“Allianz remains committed to Australian investors,” de Vigo concluded.
AGIEPT’s capital raising had closed on July 11, 2006 and was due to list on the Australian Stock Exchange on July 14, 2006.
The capital raised was supposed to buy an initial portfolio for AGIEPT, which includes four office properties in Frankfurt, Duisburg and Munich and a regional shopping center in Kiel worth $750 million.
Allianz GI was buying the properties from a real estate fund managed by Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Immobilienfonds mbH (DEGI), an Allianz AG subsidiary.
There are currently a number of Australian Stock Exchange listed REITs products devoted to investing in Europe including the APN/UKA European Retail Trust; Rubicon European Trust and General Property Trust’s joint venture with Babcock & Brown.
There are also a number of funds which have added European assets to their portfolio mix, including ING Office Fund, ING Industrial Fund, DB RREEF and Macquarie Goodman.
By Nelson Yap
