The Carlyle Group Acquires Major Real Estate Portfolio from Radeberger Gruppe

Frankfurt – Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announces it has acquired a portfolio of 122 residential and commercial properties from German brewing company Radeberger Gruppe.

The ‘Radeberger’ portfolio consists of 109 residential and 13 commercial buildings, both historic and modern, located in the central areas of major German towns including Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, Mainz and Hamburg, with further assets in South and North-West Germany.

The residential assets cover 40,000 m² within 660 rented apartments and 24,000 m² of restaurants and pubs on the ground floor of each building. The commercial assets of over 50,000 m² comprise mainly office, retail and storage space with some apartments.

Wulf Meinel, Managing Director, The Carlyle Group comments: “We are very pleased to have acquired such a significant portfolio of buildings in Germany. We are optimistic about the prospects for the German property market underpinned by a strong economic outlook.

“Carlyle’s plan for the portfolio is to improve the buildings’ potential through refurbishment and reduction of management costs. The residential assets will be renovated where necessary and the commercial properties will benefit from active asset management, with a focus on reducing vacancy after repositioning.”

Bernhard Rebel, Member of the Board, Radeberger adds: "We are pleased that the current capital market conditions were not an obstacle to the completion of this transaction. The sale of these assets delivers an adjustment to the Group’s portfolio, allowing us to concentrate on our core business.”

This acquisition was made through Carlyle’s second European real estate fund, Carlyle Europe Real Estate Partners II, a €760 million fund which closed in September 2005.

The transaction process was led by Ellwanger & Geiger, The Carlyle Group’s legal adviser was Clifford Chance and acquisition finance was provided by HVB.

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