HOUSTON, TX and MUNICH, GERMANY - September, 2007- ARGUS Software (formerly Realm Business Solutions), the creators of industry standard tools for commercial real estate, has signed its first reseller in Germany. Munich-based on-geo, a highly successful property data and valuation software firm, will market the entire suite of ARGUS products including ARGUS Valuation- DCF and ARGUS Asset Management (formerly DYNA). on-geo will also provide support and training services for Realm products.
"As the German real estate market attracts more global investment, German real estate companies want to be able to effortlessly interface with these new players," says on-geo CEO Dr. Klaus Wiegel, a former Alcatel executive and visiting professor at Boston University.
Wiegel says his German clients sought out on-geo to provide software that would make cross-border investing more efficient and easier, specifically they required a discounted cash flow tool. "We did research to understand what it would take to put discounted cash flow capabilities into our existing product, but at the end of the day we decided it wasn’t worth it to reinvent something that already had an industry-standard product," he explains. "It was at the request of my customers that I came to ARGUS Software to create a partnership."
The reseller agreement with on-geo is part of ARGUS Software's strategy to expand across Europe and provide software solutions that make cross-border investing easier. "Establishing a relationship with on-geo is an important step in this plan and will further help us to adapt our products to better suit the needs of the German real estate market. We are excited for this opportunity to provide more relevant and localized solutions for German real estate practitioners” says ARGUS Software’s senior vice president of global sales, Paul Throldahl.
"Germany is a key growth market for Europe and a significant component of our strategy to provide European real estate with solutions that will enable the industry the increased efficiency and transparency necessary to continue to advance at its current record pace," concludes Throldahl.
Last year, Germany was a hot global real estate market. A combination of willing domestic sellers, aggressive cross-border investors, positive yield spreads and a recovering economy resulted in transactions totaling $62 billion (or €51 billion), an increase of more than 140 percent, according to global real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
The buying and selling spree was the direct result of German open-ended funds, which became sellers in 2006 disposing of €34 billion in property assets. The German market now accounts for 20 percent of European volumes (up from 12 percent) and is considered one of the top 10 European investment markets. Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin and Hamburg are the most active investment markets.
Foreign investors account for the lion’s share of the German volume in all sectors, with German investors most heavily invested in office, at roughly a quarter of the approximately €24 million volume.
Additionally, Germany recently approved REIT legislation, which allows for the transfer of commercial properties and office buildings into German REITs. Residential properties can also be transferred into a G-REIT, but they must be built after December 31, 2006.
For more information about ARGUS Software's new reseller, please contact Paul Throldahl at 1-713-341-3693 or pthroldahl@argussoftware.com or Dr. Klaus Wiegel at 089 44 45 66 30 or klaus.wiegel@on-geo.de.
For press inquiries, please contact Jennifer Brenner Andrade at 1-713-341-3630 or jandrade@argussoftware.com or Kathleen Hofmann at 0361 21 68 130 or kathleen.hofmann@on-geo.de.
Media Contact
Jennifer Brenner Andrade
Vice President of Marketing
ARGUS Software
Tel: 1-713-341-3630
Cell: 1-713-409-5627
jandrade@argussoftware.com
ABOUT ON-GEO
on-geo is a leading service provider for real estate and finance. Based on its trading platform
on-geo can provide online all necessary information for real estate valuation and finance. The software LORA is a process solution which follows all standards to make real estate valuation in the German market more efficient. Furthermore on-geo runs a joint venture together with Schufa in order to provide comparable data regarding the valuation of German real estate.
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ABOUT ARGUS SOFTWARE
ARGUS Software, formerly Realm Business Solutions, provides software and services that enable its customers to better manage the financial and operational performance of their real estate portfolios. More than 10,000 of the industry's leading owners, managers, financial institutions and REITs trust Realm solutions to improve the visibility and flow of information throughout their critical business processes. Visit ARGUS Software's website to learn more about these solutions: www.argussoftware.com.
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