Union Investment announced it reached an agreement with a company which will ensure the assets’ management, but it revealed there were some difficulties to enter this segment which «is very local» and, as such, making it hard to acquire assets of this type in big cities, such as Madrid and Barcelona. «The segment is not very professional in Spain and we face problems to acquire this type of portfolios», revealed Leticia Ponz, Union Investment’s representative for Spain, Portugal and Mexico.
The resilience this market showed against the pandemic together with the lack of offer, motivated Union Investment to take a step forward within this segment. But it should be noted that this is not the only segment under its sights. According to what Leticia Ponz revealed to daily newspaper Eje Prime, the German management company remains interested in the hotel, high street retail and shopping centres segments which present themselves as «opportunities», meaning, without any need for interventions.
Spain is also not the only country on which Union Investment is betting right now. During the same interview, Leticia Ponz revealed that the company is about to conclude the purchase of an office building in Portugal, without disclosing any further details about the deal.
The truth is that the German management company has maintained its activity in Iberia, even during the crisis. In May, it concluded the purchase of Puerto Venecia Shopping Centre for 475 million euro from Generali Real Estate. And in August it paid 40 million euro to buy the On Plaza Retail Park in Madrid.
Throughout its history, the company made its presence felt in 23 countries in America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, with 45.200 assets under management: 54.1% are offices, 28.6% belong to the retail segment, 12.8% are hotels, 3.7% belong to the logistics segment and 0.8% belong to the housing segment.
