Allianz takes €365m slice of Aareal loan to NorthStar

Allianz Real Estate has taken a €365m slice of Aareal Bank’s €630m loan to NorthStar Realty Finance, the German insurance company’s first cross-border financing of a pan-European portfolio.

“Investing into this high-volume, pan-European facility is in line with the growth and diversification strategy of European Allianz companies in the property sector,” said Roland Fuchs, head of European real estate at Allianz.

Aareal’s original €530m, seven-year facility financed NorthStar’s purchase of a €1.1bn pan-European office portfolio from SEB Asset Management last December. The German bank extended the loan by a further €100m this year.

The portfolio is comprised of eleven office buildings in seven cities across Europe: Paris, Hamburg, Milan, London, Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Gothenburg in Sweden.

Aareal said the €365m syndication with Allianz is “one of the largest syndicated loans agreed between banks and institutional investors in Europe”.

“This syndication is another milestone in Aareal Bank’s cooperation with leading insurance companies such as Allianz,” said Christian Schmid, managing director of the business and syndication management division at Aareal.

“At the same time, it reflects our aim to win over and establish institutional investors as syndicate partners, alongside banks.”