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Meeting today’s housing challenges as Europe’s leading Real Estate player
Vonovia’s successful takeover of Deutsche Wohnen this year has created the basis for the company to even better meet crucial challenges in the Real Estate sector such as climate protection, demographic change and a shortage of affordable housing in urban areas.
Societe Generale has supported this landmark transaction across business lines with several financial instruments.
Earlier in 2021, two of the biggest players in the German Real Estate sector, Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen, decided to combine their resources to become one of the major European real estate players. Jointly they want to pursue affordable housing, climate protection and new construction, forming a socially responsible housing company that reliably contributes to necessary solutions for housing markets.
After the first voluntary all-cash tender offer for Deutsche Wohnen, announced by Vonovia on 24 May 2021, slightly missed the minimum acceptance threshold of 50%, Vonovia launched a revised voluntary tender offer for Deutsche Wohnen on 23 August 2021.
The second offer was very well perceived by investors with Vonovia securing 87.6% of the voting rights of Deutsche Wohnen by the end of the acceptance period. Both the Management Board and Supervisory Board of Deutsche Wohnen supported the combination.
Societe Generale has continuously supported Vonovia as a key client since its initial onboarding for the bank. Due to the extended expertise in the Real Estate sector and collective teamwork throughout all product teams, the bank assumed many roles during this complex transaction. These include acting as Underwriter, Mandated Lead Arranger and Bookrunner for the public takeover that was financed through a €22bn acquisition bridge facility, as Joint Bookrunner for issued bonds totaling €9bn as well as a Joint Global Coordinator for a subsequent fully underwritten €8.1bn Rights Issue.
The transactions are a remarkable success and testimony to the importance of a long-standing and trustful customer-client relationship with Vonovia that bridges social responsibility with economic stability and helps open new perspectives.
When it comes to the big challenges of the housing market, we can only move forward together – as an alliance of key players. We are ready to work together towards constructive solutions and it’s a major asset to count on a reliable and customer-centric partner such as Societe Generale to meet the challenges ahead.
Supporting Vonovia on the acquisition of Deutsche Wohnen is a testimony of our engagement for core clients of the bank. Vonovia has been able to fully rely on Societe Generale for this transformational acquisition, creating by far the largest residential Real Estate player in Europe, and thus outlining our ability to support our clients with “one-stop-shop” solutions on complex transactions.