German DekaBank property funds could hit e20bn this year

Germany's DekaBank could boost property funds to e20bn assets under management this year, adding about the same e1.7bn as in 2008. But real estate board member Matthias Danne says volume is not an end in itself and prudence is called for in investing capital from individual savers. Deka invests in core and core-plus properties. Of total real estate capital, e15.2bn is invested and the remaining e3.8bn is liquid. While the funds can use leverage up to 50%, the actual portfolio debt ratio is around 21%,. The figure of e20bn potential AUM for this year is however, "a house number that we could live with if it works out like that," he told PIE. "We set specific contingents for the capital that we take in. If we were to accept all the money from the savings banks that we discussed, we should have another e1.2bn net capital inflow this year... In fact we could set very much higher contingents if we wanted."