Deutsche Bank, GE Capital Real Estate and Italian property firm Bonaparte have acquired a Û307m portfolio in Italy.
The consortium has agreed with Banco Popolare di Verona e Novara to buy the share capital of Impresol, a real estate company owned by BPVN.
The portfolio comprises 234 office, retail and residential assets, mostly located in northern Italian cities.
The deal is a first for GE Capital in Italy, which is the latest big US opportunity investor to gain a foothold in the country.
Deutsche Bank is taking a 40% stake in the consortium through its Real Estate Private Equity Group. GE Capital and Bonaparte will take 30% each.
Morgan Stanley is arranging the debt facilities for the purchase through its Securitised Products Group.
REPEG vice-president Chris Papachristophorou said: “The portfolio is more of a break-up play. The idea is to divide the portfolio into offices to be sold to institutional investors, and into residential and retail portfolios.
“The mix is a roughly equal one of the three sectors. There is some refurbishment angle but not much redevelopment potential.”
UK property company Grosvenor has also clinched its first deal in Italy with the Û22.2m acquisition of a 145,300 sq ft (13,500m2) office building in Milan from Cassa di Risparmio di Parma e Piacenza, part of banking group IntesaBci.
An initial yield of 7%, rising to 10% in 2007, is reflected in the deal.
The vendor has leased back the space from Grosvenor, which bought it through Grosvenor European Prime Properties, its jv office fund set up with subsidiary Grosvenor Continental Europe and Soci
