IVG Immobilien (formerly known as IndustrieVerwaltungsGesellschaft mbH) is a German

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

company headquartered in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, Germany. It is a leading commercial property owner in Germany and other European countries.

Activities

The core business of IVG Immobilien AG is acquisition and management of commercial properties in Germany. It holds a private portfolio worth around €3.5 billion and is the largest holder of income-producing office properties in Germany.

Investments

Storage caverns

The investment company IVG Caverns GmbH focuses on the construction of caverns for storage of crude oil and natural gas, as well as their operation and leasing. Cavern lessees are companies in the energy sector and state oil storage organizations.

Institutional funds

The investment company IVG Institutional Funds GmbH is a provider and manager of structured real estate products for institutional investors with assets under management of around €11 billion as integrated investment platform with a Europe-wide network of branches, the company offers services within the structuring and Management of real estate investment products. IVG Institutional Funds focuses primarily on commercial properties in the office, retail and logistics sector in Europe.

Brownfield sites

As the successor of the former mining business, IVG also owns several

brownfield In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

sites. By agreement with the state of Lower Saxony, in April 2014, IVG is obliged to restore or removed such contamination. For this purpose, IVG will provide €2 million annually over the next 15 years for testing and remediation.

History

IVG was founded in 1916 as a "Montanindustrie" - coal and steel industry - enterprise. In 1951 it was converted into an industrial company whose sole shareholder was the Federal Republic of Germany through the Federal Ministry of Finance. In 1986 the company was converted to a public company and partially privatized. In 1993 IVG was full privatized though a stock market offering. In 1996, IVG was renamed IVG Holding AG and from 1997 focused on office and commercial property development and ownership. In 2002, after disposing of non-real estate businesses, it was renamed IVG Immobilien AG. In April 2004, IVG acquired 50.1 percent of Oppenheim Real Estate Investment Company Ltd. (OIC) and, in 2005, IVG acquired 33 gas storage caverns owned by the Federal Republic of Germany in Etzel, near Wilhelmshaven. IVG's interest in OIC increased to 94 percent in 2006/2007 and OIC was renamed IVG Institutional Funds GmbH and integrated into the former IVG Funds. On 21 February 2007, IVG Immobilien AG and UK investment firm Evans Randall completed their joint purchase of the

Gherkin A pickled cucumber (commonly known as a pickle in the United States and Canada and a gherkin in Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand) is a usually small or miniature cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or ...

building in London for GB£630 million, making it Britain's most expensive office building.

went into receivership in April 2014 due to mortgage defaults that stretch back to 2009. The accountancy firm

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

has been appointed receiver and says it will conduct a sale of the building.

Management history

From 1995 to 2006, Eckart John von Freyend was IVG's CEO. At the end of his contract on July 1, 2006, he was appointed to the supervisory board of the company, where he remained until April 2010. His successor as CEO of IVG Immobilien AG was Wolf Leichnitz. On September 30, 2008, Leichnitz resigned for personal reasons. Leichnitz was followed on November 1, 2008, by Gerhard Niesslein as executive chair of the company. After Niesslein had unexpectedly not renewed his contract, which expired at the end of October 2011, Wolfgang Schäfer, the former CFO, followed as chief executive officer on November 1, 2011.

2013-2014 insolvency proceedings

In the summer of 2013, the company fought the threat of bankruptcy. IVG's stock market capitalization had fallen to around €54 million. Write-downs on its property portfolio, breakdowns in project development and especially the construction cost overruns for

the Squaire The Squaire is an office building in Frankfurt, Germany. It was built between 2006 and 2011 on top of an existing train station ( Frankfurt Airport long-distance station) near Frankfurt Airport. The building is 660 m long, 65 m wide, 45 m hi ...

project at Frankfurt Airport were the primary cause of IVG's insolvency. In August, the group announced that €350 million would be written off the value of IVG's assets, reducing the share capital by more than half. On August 11, 2013, major creditor groups agreed to a restructuring plan and to provide a bridge financing, to be initially secured by the assets of the company. However, not all stakeholders gave the required consent, making a nonjudicial restructuring impossible. On August 21, 2013, the executive board of the company sought insolvency protection. On November 1, 2013, the Amtsgericht Bonn granted the request of the company to initiate protection proceedings under self-administration. IVG had, as of August 2013, around €4.2 billion of debt and assets under management of more than €20 billion. On March 20, 2014, the majority of the parties (creditors and shareholders) agreed at the insolvency court in Bonn to the insolvency plan prepared by the executive board. It provided for payment of a rate of at least 60 percent to unsubordinated, unsecured creditors with the balance to be converted through debt-to-equity swaps, granting the creditors newly issued shares in the company. Existing shareholders' shares were extinguished and no recovery was planned for subordinate creditors. (DGAP-Ad hoc March 20, 2014). Immediately following the meeting (n-TV, March 17, 2014) the former CEO, Wolfgang Schäfer, was reappointed. The Amtsgericht Bonn confirmed the insolvency plan on June 13, 2014. Appeals against confirmation were rejected by the district court in Bonn on July 11, 2014, and judicial confirmation of the insolvency plan became effective on July 15, 2014. The insolvency of IVG Immobilien AG was formally ended on August 14, 2014. Wolfgang Schäfer stepped down from office on March 17, 2014, which had been expected, after he had driven the restructuring of the company by initiating insolvency proceedings and playing a major role in the creation of the insolvency plan. Schäfer remained in office until the end of the insolvency proceedings in September 2014. The restructuring expert Hans-Joachim Ziem was also appointed to the board. Ralf Jung took over as CEO of the company with effect from 21 September 2014, at which time Hans-Joachim Ziem left the board.''IVG: Ralf Jung neuer CEO''
cash.online, 22 September 2014.

References

{{Authority control Companies based in Bonn Real estate companies established in 2002 2002 establishments in Germany Real estate companies of Germany