U.K.-based private equity real estate manager Benson Elliot has sold its 74.9 percent stake in German communal housing company GWB Elstertal Geraer Wohnungsbaugesellschaft to a public entity controlled by the German State of Thuringia for a total consideration of €175 million ($195 million).
The disposal was made on behalf of Benson Elliot’s pan-European fund Benson Elliot Real Estate Partners IV, which completed a final close in June 2016 with more than €700 million ($779 million) in capital commitments. The fund received backing from around 30 investors, including private and public pension funds, university endowments, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, and family offices.
According to Benson Elliot, the firm acquired its majority stake in GWB in August 2016, when the company owned and managed a portfolio of approximately 6,700 residential units, spanning 402,000 square meters (4,327,091 square feet) across 330 assets in Gera, the third-largest city
