GERMANY – The scandal at Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH which has seen the real estate firm’s head dismissed, is unlikely to faze investors, an analyst at HVB says.

“I think it there are other important factors which lead to investing in real estate,” the analyst said, suggesting investors would rather become extremely careful in their selection process.

“Of course this is negative publicity, of course some asset managers are under pressure and it is difficult to catch the effects on the market.”

According to the German financial press the scandal has clouded what Germans have considered a safe investment option.

The comments came is it emerged that Andreas Schreurs, one of the four managing directors of Deka, has been put in charge of real-estate funds for institutional investors, following the dismissal of colleague Michael Koch.

Last week Deka Immobilien GmbH, one of the biggest players in the real estate market, fired Koch for “irregularities”. Announcing Koch’s dismissal in a press release, Deka added an internal inquiry was being commenced.

As a result of the shake-up, Schreurs is also to run the northern German region while fellow managing director Willi Alda will handle the mid-German region. It was not immediately clear whether Deka would appoint a successor for Koch.

“We cannot express ourselves on the current preliminary proceedings of the state prosecution, which we completely back,” a Deka spokeswoman said.

Financial regulator Bafin told IPE it was ‘keeping an eye’ on Deka, but not Deutsche bank’s real estate arm Deutsche Real Estate, which has been mentioned in press reports. Bafin stressed it was a routine procedure and not an inquiry.


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