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KGAL benefits from market recovery in 2025 – 2026 could be a “Year of Change” for real assets

In the 2025 financial year, KGAL once again achieved a clearly positive result. The Munich-based specialist for real assets raised around 400 million euros in equity – more than in the previous year. At the same time, the company increased the volume of new business to almost 1.7 billion euros. A clear sign of the trust of our clients: Two fund mandates with a total of 550 million euros in equity were each extended by five years. The year 2026 has the potential to become a “Year of Change” – because a sustainable turn to the positive is emerging on the real asset markets.

The geopolitical pressure on Europe could also unleash positive forces for the economy and capital markets. “Europe must take action in order to gain in attractiveness and sovereignty,” emphasises André Zücker, Co-CEO of KGAL, and continues: “We are seeing the first examples of faster action and reactions by politicians – for example in the special fund for infrastructure and climate neutrality, the new Germany Fund or the investment pact for wind energy of the North Sea riparian states. In Germany and Europe, projects worth billions are being initiated that promise positive economic stimulus.”

Infrastructure needs private investors
One focus is on the infrastructure megatrend in all its facets, with government initiatives needing to be supplemented by private investment. “Private capital must effectively strengthen and leverage the subsidy packages,” says KGAL Co-CEO Florian Martin. “As a broad-based infrastructure manager – for energy infrastructure, mobility/aviation and social infrastructure real estate – we expect tailwind for 2026.” A first important milestone was the infrastructure portfolio launched with Debeka at the end of 2025 with an investment volume of up to 400 million euros. KGAL expects infrastructure investments to continue to gain in importance among institutional clients.

“Europe is facing key challenges – from defence capability to energy sovereignty,” adds André Zücker. “As an investment and asset manager, we take responsibility together with our investors to make an active contribution.”

The second drastic megatrend is artificial intelligence (AI). KGAL systematically relies on AI and a comprehensive data platform as a starting point to make processes highly efficient and optimally support investment decisions. “Our new AI Office bundles the activities from the rollout of AI in standard processes to its use in analysis, research and risk management,” says Florian Martin. The fact that ESG is also an integral part of this has long been a matter of course at KGAL.

On the situation in the asset classes:

Real estate: between selective transactions and work on the portfolio
The price expectations of buyers and sellers still often diverge. Nevertheless, KGAL was again able to complete important acquisitions in 2025. The focus was increasingly on objects of social infrastructure. This applies, for example, to the sustainable office property “Güterwerk” in Nuremberg and the systemically important justice centre in Erfurt. Further infrastructure acquisitions are in the pipeline.

Housing remains a stable anchor in real estate portfolios, supported by structural shortages and rising rental demand at the same time. The KGAL Core 5 has expanded its portfolio in 2025 with a new-build property in The Hague. The high market prices pose a challenge for acquisitions. Nevertheless, the Core 5 is aiming for a payout yield of more than 4 percent.

KGAL was able to achieve important successes in its portfolio in 2025: In Munich, the early extension of the lease agreement with BSH Hausgeräte GmbH for the “Aviva” office complex was achieved – with a gross floor area of around 60,000 square metres, the largest single letting in the state capital in more than five years. The repositioning of the “Karlak” office and retail property in Prague was also successful, with retail rents rising by around 30 percent since the purchase in 2022.
Asset management makes a significant contribution to the stable letting situation: the occupancy rate is 96.9 per cent with a total portfolio of 3.19 million square metres.

Sustainable Infrastructure: Holistic Solutions for the Energy Transition
In order to further advance the energy transition, renewable energies must be thought of more holistically in the future. For example, KGAL is developing large-scale battery storage systems in Italy, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic for more flexible control of grid feed-in. At the same time, green electricity generation is being dynamically expanded: In 2025, KGAL took advantage of a special situation to purchase five German wind farms – all with advantageous EEG feed-in tariffs and correspondingly attractive return prospects.

One of the beneficiaries was an individual mandate. The equity of 150 million euros was fully invested within a few months.

In 2025, KGAL developed a total of wind and solar farms with a capacity of 272 megawatts (MW) up to grid connection. This includes a project in the Czech Republic with a capacity of 50 MW for the first time – it is the tenth country with operational facilities in the KGAL portfolio.

An important component of value creation is the successful exit: In the summer of 2025, KGAL profitably sold the Swedish Bäckhammar wind farm with 31 turbines and 130 MW of capacity.

Aviation: uncorrelated returns and high resilience
Global aviation demonstrates resilience and potential despite international customs conflicts and geopolitical uncertainties. With the economic rise of the emerging countries, air travel will become even more important in global mobility.
KGAL and GOAL, the joint venture with Lufthansa, can look back on a very active year in 2025: a total of ten leasing contracts were signed and three extended. There were eight aircraft sales, and one airline was won as a new customer. The bottom line is that the investment volume reached almost 400 million euros.

The individual fund KGAL APF 5, which has now grown to 500 million euros, leased two Embraer E195-E2s to Porter Airlines and a Boeing 737 MAX 8 to VietJet in 2025, among other things. An Airbus A350-900 was successfully sold.

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