Patrizia Immobilien

History

The company was founded in 1984 by Wolfgang Egger. Egger gained his first experience of the real estate sector with a summer job on a construction site before he had even reached his teens. At the age of 19 he built a house, which he then went on to sell. He used the proceeds from the sale to buy Patrizia's first apartments. Within three years of its founding, Patrizia was privatising 100 apartments per year. The company's focus was on Munich and Augsburg. Patrizia's strategy involved first buying apartments in Munich's Olympia-Pressestadt, along with apartments owned and used by Bayer AG and other companies, as well as large residential complexes in Perlach, Schwabing, Obergiesing and Augsburg, before selling the apartments, primarily to their tenant occupants.

Following the company's IPO in 2006, Patrizia acquired residential real estate in some of Germany’s major cities and conurbations, expanding its portfolio to include around 13,000 apartments. At the same time, the company diversified its range of services and launched special funds Spezialfonds for institutional investors. Together with two international pension funds, the company founded PATRoffice GmbH & Co. KG to facilitate investments in commercial real estate.

In 2011, Patrizia took over Hamburger LB Immo Invest GmbH, an initiator of commercial real estate Spezialfonds, and went on to expand the business. A co-investment with a consortium of pension and insurance funds enabled Patrizia to acquire LBBW Immobilien GmbH, owner of around 21,500 apartments, for €1.435 billion in February 2012.

Led by Patrizia, a co-investment consortium of pension funds, insurance companies and savings banks acquired 92% of the shares in GBW AG in April 2013. GBW AG's housing stock totalled approximately 32,000 Bavarian apartments; the shares were acquired for €2.45 billion. With the takeover of the British Tamar Group in the same year, Patrizia simultaneously expanded its international operations.

Criticism

The company was subject to public criticism in 1992 when, according to a report in Der Spiegel (37/1992 - Wie Augsburger Altbauten mit Hilfe von Asylbewerbern entmietet werden) Wolfgang Egger is reported as having said, “Every apartment that becomes vacant will be filled with asylum seekers.” ("Jede frei werdende Wohnung wird mit Asylanten belegt"), a statement that is reported to have unsettled residents of apartment buildings at Rote-Torwall-Straße 16 and Schülestraße 4 in Augsburg. Egger denied ever making the statement.

In 2004, Germany's largest pension fund, BVV, awarded Patrizia a mandate as property and asset manager of the BVV's real estate assets. During the same year Patrizia was in the firing line in Hamburg as it developed a Mövenpick hotel in the former water tower in Sternschanzenpark despite questions surrounding the legitimacy of the project's building permits. Nevertheless, Patrizia later received two prestigious awards for the successful redesign and construction project, including the 2008 MIPIM Award.

Corporate structure

At the beginning of 2013 the company announced that it would be restructuring in order to better support its increasingly international operations. Under the umbrella of the Holding company, national companies such as Patrizia Deutschland GmbH and Patrizia UK were established and given responsibility for the operative businesses in their country. The previously established operating companies Patrizia Acquisition & Consulting GmbH, Patrizia Alternative Investments GmbH, Patrizia Immobilienmanagement GmbH, Patrizia Investmentmanagement GmbH, Patrizia Projektentwicklung GmbH, Patrizia Sales GmbH and Patrizia Wohnen GmbH were merged with Patrizia Deutschland GmbH.[

Wolfgang Egger is founder, majority shareholder and CEO of the company. Via his First Capital Partner investment company, he has held more than 51 percent of Patrizia voting rights since 2011. The company's other board members are Arwed Fischer and Klaus Schmitt. The Supervisory Board comprises Theodor Seitz, Alfred Hoschek and Gerhard Steck.

Charitable foundation

Wolfgang Egger set up the PATRIZIA KinderHaus foundation as a charitable foundation in 1999. The foundation, although based in Augsburg, is active worldwide. It delivers one specially selected project at a time. The foundation's mission is to create living space for vulnerable children and young people via the construction of new buildings tailored to their specific needs.