Stuttgart – London-listed Savills plc is acquiring SEB Asset Management AG (SEBAM) after a bidding process structured by investment bank Lazard. SEBAM is one of Germany’s leading real estate asset managers and belongs to the Swedish SEB Group. Going forward, SEBAM’s activities will be combined with the Savills Group’s existing asset management business, Cordea Savills. The Cordea Savills Group currently has assets under management totalling EUR 7 billion. Added together with SEBAM the figure will rise to almost EUR 15 billion in Europe, plus around EUR 2 billion in Asia.

Headquartered in Frankfurt, SEBAM acts via its subsidiary SEB Investment GmbH as asset manager for property funds that hold real estate assets worldwide totalling around EUR 10 billion, of which approx. 40 per cent is held by funds for institutional investors. The rest is accounted for by open-ended real estate funds in Germany which are in liquidation. The acquisition is subject to approval from the competition and regulatory authorities.

An international CMS team headed by lead partners Dr Claus-Peter Fabian and Dr Daniel Voigt advised Savills on all legal aspects of the transaction. The peculiarities of the funds managed by SEBAM and the carve-out of SEBAM from the SEB Group were key areas of focus.

Savills plc is a global real estate services provider offering a range of specialist advisory, management and transactional services in the property sector. In Germany, Savills has previously been active in the asset management space via Cordea Savills Invest GmbH, which since 2013 is licensed as management company in Germany. Cordea Savills Invest GmbH is a client of CMS since its setting up in 2013. The CMS-Team advised the company since than in real estate acquisitions with a volume of 280 Million Euro.

CMS Hasche Sigle

Dr Claus-Peter Fabian, Corporate/M&A, Lead Partner
Dr Daniel Voigt, Asset Management, Funds & Capital Investment Law, Lead Partner
Dr. Volker Zerr, Real Invest, Principal Contact Partner
Slaven Kovacevic
Peter Hocke, both M&A
Dr Peter Baisch
Dr Peter Wende
Dr Martina Schmid
Dr Karsten Heider, all Corporate
Dr Axel Funk
Dr Michael Kraus
Christian Rein, all TMT
Dr Marc Seibold
Dr Georg Lauster
Dr Andreas Grunert, Banking & Finance
Tobias Schneider, Tax
Dr Oliver Simon
Dr Michael Rein
Maximilian Koschker, all Labor, Employment & Pensions
Dr Stefan Voß, Real Estate & Public
Dr Joachim Kaetzler
Hannes Ronken
Dr Christoph Schücking, all Banking & Finance
Sebastian Schwack
Dr Katharina Kneisel, both Asset Management, Funds & Capital Investment Law
Kai Neuhaus
Philipp-Christian Scheel, both Competition & EU

CMS DeBacker Luxembourg

Julien Leclère
Claude Feyereisen, both Corporate

Press Contact
presse@cms-hs.com