Eurohypo, Europe’s largest commercial real estate bank, is preparing for a flotation later this year.
The news emerged last week as Eurohypo reported that its pretax profit for last year had soared by 92.1% to €¤611m.
Eurohypo was formed from the mortgage subsidiaries of German banks Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank in mid-2002. The three own 98% of Eurohypo, but are intending to float a stake of between 40% and 45%.
The bank’s fee income rose to €79m in 2004, a substantial increase from 2003’s €34m. Net interest income stood at €1.3bn, similar to the previous year.
New property business grew by almost 21% to €17.3bn. In 2004, 73% of new business was originated outside Germany, up from 64% in 2003.
Eurohypo syndicated a total €4.1bn of loans last year. It has delivered more real estate loan finance (€20.3bn) from 2000-04 than any other arranger in the European markets.
Through its London platform Opera, Eurohypo securitised €1.3bn of loans, coming third in the European securitisation league tables for 2004.
Neil Lawson-May, joint chief executive of Eurohypo real estate investment banking, said: “The UK business continues to thrive and is determined to offer the best of the capital markets and its own balance sheet.”
New branches are planned in Asia, Russia and the US.
The bank continued to improve its risk structure. Loan loss provisions were reduced to €325m (€392m in 2003).
