DLA Piper advises KGAL and Kiwoom Asset Management on the sale of Deutsche Telekom headquarters

DLA Piper has advised the South Korean asset manager Kiwoom Asset Management (Kiwoom) and KGAL GmbH & Co. KG (KGAL) on the sale of Deutsche Telekom's global headquarters located in Bonn, Germany. Kiwoom acted as asset manager for a group of South Korean institutional investors. Renovated in 2017, the state-of-the-art property in Bonn's federal district is leased on a long-term basis. Art-Invest Real Estate prevailed as the buyer in a bidding process.

The single-tenant property, built in 1995, is fully leased to Deutsche Telekom on a long-term basis. Most of the approximately 81,000 m² of rental space is for traditional office use. In addition, there are around 980 parking spaces. The property is located in a well-established office location in Bonn's federal district in the direct vicinity of federal authorities, international institutions, universities and corporate headquarters. The infrastructural connection is attractive accordingly.

Kiwoom Asset Management is a subsidiary of Korea’s number one securities brokerage firm (by trading volume) Kiwoom Securities, and is one of the major asset management companies with total Asset Under Management of 49.9 trillion won (37.5 billion). KGAL is a leading investment and asset manager based in Grünwald near Munich with a managed investment volume of more than 16.5 billion EUR. The focus of the investments is on long-term real capital investments for institutional and private investors in Real Estate, Sustainable Infrastructure and Aviation.

The DLA Piper team was led by partners Dr Florian Biesalski (Real Estate, Frankfurt) and Dr Cornelius Frie (Corporate/M&A, Cologne). In addition, partners Dr Marie-Theres Rämer (Tax, Frankfurt), of counsel Woojung Kim (Seoul), counsel Sonja Beier (Real Estate, Frankfurt), Timo Betjemann (Corporate, Cologne), Mélody Brunot (Corporate/M&A, Luxembourg), senior associates Alexander Lamers (Real Estate, Frankfurt), Alexander Kath (Corporate/M&A, Cologne), Kais Torchani (Finance, Frankfurt), Jordan Reinert (Corporate/M&A), Emre Akan (Tax, both Luxembourg), associates Dr Julia Kolbe (Cologne) and Ashley Ntsangha (both Corporate/M&A, Luxembourg) advised on the transaction.