FRANKFURT, Nov 7 (Reuters) – Hochtief AG, a German
construction and industrial services provider, posted higher
than expected third-quarter earnings and raised expectations for
orders and sales on Asia and the United States.

Its order backlog and sales this year will match 2011
levels, and not fall as previously predicted, helped by its
construction business in the United States and its building and
mining operations in Australia, the company, controlled by
Spain’s ACS, said on Wednesday.

FRANKFURT, Nov 6 (Reuters) – German airport operator Fraport
earned more than expected in the third quarter and
predicted three years of rising profits supported by a fourth
runway at its Frankfurt airport which has increased passenger
numbers and air traffic.

Fraport makes more than a third of its operating earnings
from retail outlets at F rankfurt and sales of surplus land. It
has expanded one of its two terminals there to tap passenger
growth after the fourth runway opened in 2010.

MUNICH, Oct 10 (Reuters) – German public sector lender
BayernLB will start the sale of 33,000 flats in the
next few days, its Chief Executive said, in a deal that could
easily top this year’s biggest real estate transaction in
Germany.

The bank, which has to sell the real estate unit GBW
to meet European Commission demands, is seeking
non-binding bids until year-end, CEO Gerd Haeusler said on
Wednesday.

MUNICH (Reuters) – Allianz (ALVG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Europe’s largest insurer, is taking advantage of banks’ diminished appetite for lending against real estate by offering loans to boost its investment in property.

The loans offer a similar return to the rental yields on acquired buildings and help Allianz to overcome a scarcity of prime real estate investment opportunities, Olivier Piani, chief executive officer of Allianz Real Estate, said.

FRANKFURT, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Hochtief, the German
construction and industrial services provider controlled by
Spain’s ACS, reported a surprise second-quarter loss on
Tuesday, hit by a troubled concert hall project in Hamburg which
analysts said now puts the company in danger of missing its
full-year profit forecast.

The company would have to earn about 475 million euros ($587
million) before taxes and about 229 million euros net in the
second half to reach its targets.

FRANKFURT, May 8 (Reuters) – Einar Skjerven wants to spend
71 million euros ($93 million) on apartments in Berlin for
German and Austrian clients, but decided to hold off after
prices surged in a city long famed for its cheap, abundant
housing.

House prices elsewhere in Germany have also accelerated
after years of stagnation, prompting fears in some quarters of a
real estate ‘bubble’ in a country deeply sensitive about any
sign of inflation. Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, has
said it will monitor prices “very closely”.

FRANKFURT/MADRID, May 8 (Reuters) – Spanish builder ACS
reported a 73 percent rise in first-quarter profits on
Tuesday, boosted by the consolidation of results from its German
affiliate Hochtief, but a rise in debt means the group
needs to sell more assets, analysts said.

Chief Executive Florentino Perez is aiming to reduce its net
debt to less than three times earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation and amortisation.

FRANKFURT, May 3 (Reuters) – German cement maker
HeidelbergCement joined peers in raising prices after
posting a 77 percent decline in operating profit in the first
quarter, a bigger fall than expected due to higher energy costs.

Operating profit in the first three months of the year
declined to 14 million euros ($18 million) from 60 million euros
a year earlier, the company said on Thursday.

FRANKFURT, April 10 (Reuters) – Cerberus has joined
the growing list of private equity firms looking into German
property as it is close to buying 22,000 German flats from
Speymill Deutsche Immobilien (SDIC) for some 900 million euros
($1.2 billion).

Ernst & Young has been mandated to sell the apartments for
SDIC as the rents no longer provided sufficient guarantees for
SDIC’s lenders, SDIC Company Secretary Nigel Caine told Reuters
on Tuesday.

MANNHEIM, March 21 (Reuters) – Bilfinger Berger,
Germany’s second-largest building company, is banking on
takeovers in Asia away from its traditional construction
business to reach its 2016 earnings goal, it said on Wednesday.

The company, based in the southern German city of Mannheim,
said it aims to increase its profitability, measured as adjusted
net income as a percentage of output, to at least 3.3 percent in
2016 from 2.6 percent in 2011.