A Single Family Office refers to a company that takes care of the asset management of an owner family. The main objectives of these Single Family Offices are, on the one hand, asset protection and, on the other hand, asset growth. Most (German) SFOs are characterised not only by their discretion, but also by preferential investments in secure investment opportunities. Accordingly, real estate business is the core business of many single family offices, or at least an important mainstay, which offers not only stable value but also steady income. In this article we present three German Single Family Offices that are very active in the real estate business. This article is based on the unique list of the largest single family offices with a real estate focus in Europe.
AM alpha Capital management company mbH
AM alpha Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH belongs to the Wolfgang Egger family. The single family office is represented on four continents and has offices in Luxembourg, Istanbul, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney and Chile. The team of more than 100 employees* focuses on office, retail, residential and logistics real estate and is thus widely diversified. Also due to this diversified approach, AM alpha now has over € 2 billion of assets under management worldwide. It was only at the end of March 2020 that the single family office based in Gräfeling, Bavaria, announced the construction of 25 new residential buildings in Tokyo.
Wirtgen Invest Holding GmbH
The Windhagen-based single family office was founded in 2017 following the sale of the construction machinery company “Wirtgen Group” for € 4.4 billion. With the GmbH, the Wirtgen family now invests not only in wind farms but also in real estate in European conurbations. The latest real estate project is Taunusanlage 8 (“T8”) in Frankfurt – with its prime location directly in the centre of Frankfurt, the building is in the immediate vicinity of the Zeil and borders on the business district in the Westend. The office building was awarded DGNB Gold and LEED Platinum Green Building certification for resource-saving and environmentally friendly construction. Other real estate projects include the Wallhaus in Hamburg and a 15,000 m² property in Düsseldorf in a joint venture with the MOMENI Group.
DRIA GmbH
DRIA GmbH (Dalhke Real Estate Investment and Asset Management) is a single family office based in Heinsberg. The family office, which belongs to the Dahlke family, specializes in commercial real estate in the Düsseldorf area up to a volume of €10 million and has a real estate portfolio worth €250 million. In addition, the company offers asset management for foreign family offices, currently for Lahav Family Office from Israel and Sunshine Family Office from Australia – the portfolio size here is €300 million. Here, too, the focus is on the German commercial real estate sector. Under the management of the six shareholders, who all have years of experience in dealing with commercial real estate, a wide variety of projects have been developed and built: from retail parks to fast food restaurants to car washes. For example, the GmbH recently organised a 1,456 m² plot of land in Rüthen for the Sunshine Family Office.
Picture source: Igor Flek
