Fortress Investment Completes 3.5 Billion euros (US $4.3 Billion) Acquisition of GAGFAH
New York and Frankfurt, Germany (ots/PRNewswire)
Fortress
Investment Group LLC ("Fortress") today announced that it has
completed the acquisition of Germany's fourth largest residential
housing company, GAGFAH, from the German federal government's social
security and pension agency, Bundesversicherungsanstalt fuer
Angestellte (or "BfA"). The transaction, which is valued at
approximately 3.5 billion euros (US$4.3 billion), includes the
assumption of 1.4 billion euros of existing financing, a 1.4 billion
euros acquisition loan, and 700 million euros of private equity
capital.The acquisition follows the announcement by the BfA on July 15, 2004 of its intention to sell the government-run housing company to Fortress following a ten-month competitive bidding process.
The acquisition represents the continuation of Fortress's strategy of acquiring asset-based businesses from non-strategic owners in the United States and Western Europe, including governments seeking to privatize non-core holdings. The firm's principals have been active in this area since the mid-1990's, and have completed two of the largest privatizations of real estate in the UK - the acquisition in 1996 of the military housing from the Ministry of Defence and the acquisition in 2001 of the commercial real estate owned and occupied by the UK Departments of Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.
Wesley R. Edens, Chief Executive Officer of Fortress, said "We are excited to be making a major strategic investment in the German residential housing market, which we believe is the largest private equity deal ever completed in Germany. This represents a terrific opportunity to combine the GAGFAH team's in-depth knowledge of local property markets with our expertise in real estate, capital markets and finance. We believe that GAGFAH's broad geographic footprint provides an excellent opportunity for future growth."
About GAGFAH
GAGFAH owns, manages, and develops residential housing properties throughout western Germany, with a concentration in major urban areas including West Berlin, Hamburg, Bielefeld, Cologne, and Essen. The Company's housing portfolio includes approximately 1,000 residential properties comprising nearly 80,000 units and 4.8 million square meters of rentable space. The portfolio is well maintained and enjoys high in-place occupancy of 98% and average tenancy of 13 years.
About Fortress Investment Group LLC
Fortress Investment Group LLC is a global alternative investment and asset management firm founded in 1998 with approximately US$10 billion in equity capital currently under management. With headquarters in New York, Fortress and its affiliates have offices in London, Rome, Frankfurt and Geneva.
Contact:
Investors, Allison Thrush of Fortress Investment Group,
+1-212-798-6063; or Media, Andrew Merrill of Edelman Financial
Communications, +1-212-704-4559, for Fortress Investment Group