German Real Estate "A pivot to scale, not quality: Aroundtown increases ..."

Research evidence excerpt

German Real Estate "A pivot to scale, not quality: Aroundtown increases ..."

Global Research

20 May 2026ab

German Real Estate Equities

GermanyA pivot to scale, not quality: Aroundtown

increases its Grand City stake Real Estate

Charles Boissier, CFA

Analyst

charles.boissier@ubs.com

Quality rotation, not empire building +44-20-7568 4415

Aroundtown has increased its Grand City stake from 63% to 82% - and we believe this Nadir Rahman

should be read as a portfolio-quality trade, not a scale story. The asset mix shifts toward Analyst

residential, with pro-forma residential exposure rising to 40% and German exposure to nadir.rahman@ubs.com

87%, while Grand City remains separately operated and already consolidated. It reduces +44-20-7567 1750

Aroundtown's office-heavy narrative risk without requiring investors to commit capital Zachary Gauge

pay for a large M&A integration story. We see a cleaner, more defensive AT equity story; Analyst

the debate shifts from balance-sheet focus to whether a better mix can support a tighter zachary.gauge@ubs.com

discount. +44-20-7901 5534

NAV discounts enable ps accretion, supported by buybacks

The 4-for-1 share exchange lifts the GYC stake to 81.5% and results in c.130m AT shares

issued, but the concurrent €250m buyback largely offsets dilution, with our assumption

of c.97m shares repurchased. The result is some NAV ps accretion of 9.1% in FY26e,

fading but still positive, and FFO ps accretion rising from 8.6% in FY26e to c.16% by

FY29–31e. Following our model update, we estimate the transaction lifts Aroundtown’s

pro-forma FFO to the top end of FY26 company guidance, with UBSe FFO of €305m and

FFO I ps of €0.27; however, the FY27–28 trajectory remains constrained by higher

refinancing costs with FFO ps remaining flat.