Brookfield bets on post-pandemic office demand with Alstria offer

Alstria Office REIT AG

04/11/2021 11:43

MUNICH, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Brookfield  BAMa.TO  is betting
companies will hold fast to the concept of offices with its
takeover offer for German real estate company Alstria Office
REIT AG  AOXG.D , the Canadian investment firm's head of
European real estate said on Thursday. 
    "We are believers in office space. I don’t think the office
will go away, but we will see corporates use their office space
in a different, more flexible way," managing partner Brad Hyler
said.
    Brookfield announced a takeover offer of almost 3.5 billion
euros ($4.1 billion) for Alstria on Thursday. It is aiming for a
majority stake of more than 50%.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2RV2O8
    Alstria owns about 120 office properties in major cities
including Hamburg, Frankfurt and Berlin, where many workers
returned to offices after COVID-19 lockdown measures.
    Brookfield aims to grow Alstria over at least the next
half-decade.
    "In five years or so, Alstria will be bigger than now,"
Hyler said. "We want to accelerate what they are already doing.
We certainly have the capital resources to do that."


 (Reporting by Alexander Huebner; additional reporting by
Miranda Murray; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
 ((Miranda.Murray@thomsonreuters.com;))