The story
History
The company was founded in 1984 by Wolfgang Egger. He gained his first experience of the real estate sector with a summer job on a construction site while in his teens. At the age of 19, he built a house, which he then went on to sell. He used the proceeds from the sale to buy Patrizia's first apartments. Within three years of its founding, Patrizia was privatizing 100 apartments per year. The company's focus was on Munich and Augsburg. Patrizia's strategy involved first buying apartments in Munich's Olympia-Pressestadt, along with apartments owned and used by Bayer AG and other companies, as well as large residential complexes in Augsburg, Obergiesing, Perlach and Schwabing before selling the apartments, primarily to their tenant occupants. Egger has since explained that one driving motivation was to turn tenants into homeowners. This gives individuals "financial freedom later in life and at the same creates value to society."
Following the company's IPO in 2006, Patrizia acquired residential real estate in major German cities and conurbations, expanding its portfolio to include around 13,000 apartments. At the same time, the company diversified its services and launched Spezialfonds (special funds) for institutional investors. In 2011, Patrizia took over Hamburger LB Immo Invest GmbH, an initiator of commercial real estate Spezialfonds, and went on to expand the business. A co-investment with a consortium of pension and insurance funds enabled Patrizia to acquire LBBW Immobilien GmbH (later: SÜDEWO), owner of around 21,500 apartments, for €1.435 billion in February 2012.
Led by Patrizia, a co-investment consortium of pension funds, insurance companies and savings banks acquired 92% of the shares in GBW AG (later: Dawonia)in April 2013. GBW AG's housing stock totaled approximately 32,000 apartments in Bavaria; the shares were acquired for €2.45 billion.
With the takeover of the British Tamar Group the previous year, Patrizia simultaneously expanded its international operations.
After the integration of Rockspring Property Managers LLP, Triuva Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH and Sparinvest under one common Patrizia brand in 2018, Patrizia acquired a strategic stake in Evana, an artificial intelligence business, as part of its stated goal of becoming "the technology leader in European real estate investment management." In January 2019, Patrizia announced the acquisition of Japan-based Kenzo Capital Corporation. Kenzo is an established local platform serving European clients interested in investing in Japanese residential real estate through a dedicated fund that was launched in 2017 in cooperation with Patrizia.
In May 2019, Patrizia took an equity interest of 10 per cent in Control.IT, a company that produces asset and portfolio management software. In June 2019, Patrizia Immobilien AG changed its legal name, in line with a resolution of that year's Annual General Meeting, to ‘PATRIZIA AG’. “The new name of the company and the renouncement of the German addendum Immobilien takes into account our stronger international orientation we have focused on for some time now,” commented Wolfgang Egger, CEO of PATRIZIA.
In recent years, Patrizia has focused on digitalisation, innovation and new technologies. Apart from the stake in Evana and Control.IT, Patrizia announced in October 2019 that it had obtained a strategic stake in Cognotekt, a Cologne-based artificial intelligence platform that has developed a unique technological approach for Natural Language Processing. Cognotekt's scientific technology is seen as having the potential to further enhance the operational and corporate data management processes of Patrizia in collaboration with Evana. Soon after Patrizia created a strategic partnership with WiredScore, a global rating scheme for digital connectivity across commercial and residential real estate.
In February 2020, Patrizia partnered with pioneering PropTech VC Pi Labs and has participated in Pi Labs’ third fund which will invest in early stage PropTech start-ups across Europe. In June 2020, the company entered into a partnership with Taronga Ventures in the close of its RealTech Ventures Fund, which invests into proptech in the Asia Pacific region. In November 2020, Patrizia expanded its global innovation ecosystem and scouting approach with an investment in the Camber Creek PropTech Venture Capital Fund. Camber Creek has a strong focus on North America.
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In September 2021, Patrizia announced the acquisition of Whitehelm Capital, an international infrastructure manager, which triples Patrizia infrastructure AUM to circa EUR 5 billion. In June 2022, Patrizia announced it had raised €50 million to invest in the Sustainable Future Ventures (SFV), a new fund that invests in property technology that it believes will drive sustainability in the built environment. The SFV is the first in a new fund series.
“Another key pillar of our strategy is the continued focus on technology. We want to promote technologies within the PropTech industry that make the built environment more sustainable,” Christoph Glaser, the Chief Financial Officer, said.
Charitable foundation
Wolfgang Egger set up the PATRIZIA Foundation (former PATRIZIA KinderHaus Stiftung) as a charitable foundation in 1999. The PATRIZIA Foundation has helped over 250,000 children in need worldwide, giving them access to education and greater opportunities to lead better lives. The Foundation distinguishes itself by ensuring every euro donated goes 100% to the projects.
From Wikipedia’s article on Patrizia SE, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5