The sale of a circa €600 million office building by Blackstone Group looks uncertain as Allianz Real Estate is dragging its feet, CoStar News understands.
Blackstone has been in exclusive talks with the insurer for weeks. The US private equity firm had expected to sell the 48,000-square-metre property, called Tripolis, two weeks ago.
Blackstone had instructed CBRE and NL Real Estate to market the property in November after letting the remaining 18,000 square metres in the building to De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek for more than 10 years. It had earlier prelet around 30,000 square metres to ride-hailing firm Uber to house its international headquarters.
Allianz is now unlikely to buy the building as it has put on the market more than €1.5 billion of offices across Europe. Allianz' sale was earlier reported by React News.
The insurer selected the offices that it has held longer, hoping to realise the biggest possible gains. The timing and the size have stunned the market. Real estate markets tend to slow down towards the summer, particularly this year given the higher cost of debt and many economic uncertainties, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. There has been a standoff between buyers and sellers as the market expects core properties to reprice.
Allianz' sudden sale has led to speculation that it is connected to a $6 billion fine in the US. Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Allianz Global Investors and three former senior portfolio managers with what the regulator called a "massive fradulent scheme" that, according to the SEC, concealed the downside risk of a complex options trading strategy.
Allianz did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.