GSW real estate

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
GSW Immobilien AG

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN DE000GSW1111
founding 1924/1937
Seat Berlin , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management
  • Lars Wittan,
    CEO
Number of employees 314 (2019)
sales 357.8 million euros (2019)
Branch Real estate industry
Website www.gsw.ag
As of December 31, 2019

GSW Immobilien AG , founded in 1924, is a listed residential real estate company in Berlin that owns around 61,000 residential units. GSW's corporate strategy is geared towards the long-term management of rental apartments. As of December 31, 2012, the company's real estate portfolio was valued at around EUR 3.3 billion. In the 2012 financial year, the company generated sales of 160 million euros with an average of 557 employees. GSW Immobilien was taken over by Deutsche Wohnen in 2013 , which holds around 98.8 percent of the shares.

history

Memorial stone, Am Gemeindepark 24, in Berlin-Lankwitz

In 1924, the municipal housing welfare company Berlin mbH was founded to award new construction funds in Berlin. In the mid-1930s, the company began building its own apartments. In 1937, eight urban housing and settlement companies were merged to form the non-profit settlement and housing company (GSW), which became the largest housing company in the city with over 37,000 apartments. Large parts of the buildings were destroyed in the course of the Second World War .

As a result of the political division of Berlin in 1948, the company lost control of its assets in the eastern part of the city. From 1950 the reconstruction of the destroyed living space was at the center of the company's activities. The 1960s and 1970s were characterized by large new building projects such as the Neukölln high-deck housing estate. After reunification and the transfer of the former property back, GSW concentrated on the repair and modernization of the predominantly in poor condition in East Berlin. Several offices were opened across the city by 1995.

In 2004, the state of Berlin, ruled by a red-red coalition ( Senate Wowereit II ), sold GSW with a portfolio of around 65,000 apartments for 405 million euros to a consortium consisting of the investment companies Whitehall Investments Ltd. and subsidiaries of Cerberus Capital Management . Debt of 1.56 billion euros was also taken over. Since then the company has operated as GSW Immobilien GmbH .

With effect from April 1, 2010, the company renamed GSW Immobilien AG . The initial listing in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange followed on April 15, 2011 . From September 19, 2011 to November 26, 2013, GSW was listed in the MDAX .

On June 28, 2012, the former Justice Senator Gisela von der Aue was elected to the Supervisory Board and its number of members was reduced from nine to six.

At the initiative of the Dutch pension fund PGGM , which holds around 2.6 percent of GSW, the chairman of the supervisory board, Eckart John von Freyend, had to face a vote of no confidence at the general meeting in June 2013. The shareholders accused Freyend of having, in Bernd Kottmann, a confidante in the office of CEO who does not have sufficient qualifications. Kottmann and Freyend knew each other from their time together at IVG Immobilien AG , where Freyend was CEO and Kottmann CFO. The IVG is now considered a restructuring case. Most recently, the works council had also spoken out against the company's management. Both resigned from their offices shortly thereafter.

The company will continue to operate as a portfolio holder of its real estate, but is only a formal legal shell without its own legal authority (“legal unit”), because otherwise property transfer tax would have to be paid when Deutsche Wohnen takes over.

GSW high-rise

GSW high-rise in Berlin-Kreuzberg

The formerly rented headquarters of GSW Immobilien AG is located not far from the former Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin's old newspaper district in Charlottenstrasse in Kreuzberg. The new building - also known from the intro of the television series Verliebt in Berlin - was completed in 1999 according to plans by Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton ( Sauerbruch Hutton office ). It expands an existing high-rise from the 1950s into a four-part ensemble. In addition to the 17-storey old office tower, a 22-storey high-rise slab, the round pillbox and a connecting low-rise building were built.

The building was a registered project of the EXPO 2000 . It has a low-energy concept that reduces consumption by up to 40 percent due to fresh air / exhaust air thermal. A double façade system made of glass ensures clean room air and good use of daylight. The office building at a height of 81 meters is crowned by a wind sail, which is also an essential part of the energy concept.

Different office space arrangements are possible on each floor - one-sided, two-sided and combined office space uses. In addition, individual office rental units can be separated. A total of 23,400 m² of office and retail space is available. On the first floor of the new building there is a 225 m² conference room with lobby and tea kitchen.

When the section of Kochstrasse east of Friedrichstrasse was renamed Rudi-Dutschke-Strasse in 2008 , GSW Immobilien moved the address at Kochstrasse 22 to a side entrance (Charlottenstrasse 4) in order to avoid the re-addressing against which the housing company had sued in vain .

criticism

District Mayor Franz Schulz clearing Schlesische Strasse 25

In 1993, the GSW received 23 state-owned houses from the State of Berlin as a gift. However, it was contractually agreed that the houses would be repaired by GSW within ten years. After the privatization of GSW in 2004, the houses were also privately owned. The newly concluded contracts with the new owners Cerberus and Goldman Sachs were kept secret. In 2011 the property was sold in a dilapidated condition by GSW, which led to protests and allegations of breach of contract. The protests culminated in an occupation of one of the affected houses in Schlesische Strasse 25, to which the police responded with an eviction. It is also criticized that most of the houses given away by the city after management by the GSW are not only affected by progressive deterioration but also by vacancies, have been sold and tenants are being displaced by luxury renovations. This is also contrary to the contract, since the resale and conversion of the apartments into residential property were prohibited without the consent of the state. Damage such as dry rot, leaky roofs or broken chimneys were not repaired by GSW despite reports of defects. In the case of the resale of five houses, the tenants were not informed despite the right of first refusal and the tenant protection clauses agreed upon during the privatization in 2004 were not passed on to the property buyers.

In the plenary session on June 14, 2012, the opposition factions Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen Berlin , Die Linke and the pirate faction asked the Red-Black Senate to investigate the problems and to disclose the new privatization contracts. However, the Senator for Urban Development and Environment Michael Müller stated that he did not want to initiate any infringement proceedings. Hearings were held at the meetings of the Committee for Building, Housing and Transport of the Berlin House of Representatives on April 18 and June 6, but the representatives of GSW refused to attend. In addition, an implementation committee was set up to monitor the contractual relationships between the State of Berlin and GSW.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b GSW Immobilien turnover, key figures, balance sheet / income statement. In: finanzen.net. Retrieved July 29, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Ulrich Paul: GSW sale for 405 million euros received wide approval . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 18, 2004.
  3. ^ H. Mortsiefer, R. Schönball: GSW: Berlin apartments before the sale on the stock exchange . In: Der Tagesspiegel , November 4, 2009, accessed on April 15, 2019.
  4. ↑ GSW General Assembly elects former Berlin Justice Senator Gisela von der Aue to the Supervisory Board . GSW Immobilien, press release, June 28, 2012 (PDF).
  5. ↑ Hans Ewert: Shareholders defeat GSW bosses Kottmann and von Freyend . In: Berliner Morgenpost , June 26, 2013.
  6. ↑ Heads of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board leave GSW Immo . Reuters, June 26, 2013.
  7. ↑ Uprising at GSW: The works council also calls for the boss to resign . Reuters, June 25, 2013.
  8. ↑ End of the housing company GSW - in the end there are facades . In: Die Tageszeitung , July 27, 2015, accessed on August 3, 2015.
  9. ↑ GSW high-rise without Dutschke , accessed on March 21, 2013
  10. ↑ GSW23 Taz of April 10, 2012
  11. ↑ a b GSW apartments, The Senate knows nothing Berlin tenants' association from June 2012
  12. ↑ GSW hearing: the Senate refuses to initiate infringement proceedings against GSW Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen Berlin on June 7, 2012
  13. ↑ Disclose GSW privatization contracts Die Linke Berlin of September 13, 2011
  14. ↑ Rejection by GSW to the Building, Housing and Transport Committee - Oliver Höfinghoff press release by the pirate faction of June 6, 2012
  15. ↑ Printed matter 17/0407 (PDF; 34 kB)
  16. ↑ Hearing in the building committee on the violations of the GSW against tenant protection rights Comment by Katrin Schmidberger and Oliver Höfinghoff