The German media had estimated a writedown of about 200-600 mln eur would be taken. Deutsche Bank AG's DB Real Estate unit has written down the value of its Grundbesitz-Invest fund by 2.4 pct, or 147 mln eur, to 37.17 eur per share as a result of weakness in the German real estate market.
It was hit by massive outflows as many investors left the fund. The Grundbesitz-Invest fund, which once had a value of around 6 bln eur, was frozen in December, meaning investors could no longer sell the shares they held in the open-ended property investment vehicle back to the unit.
The fund will be reopened on Friday as planned. The fund was closed until the recent revaluation of its property portfolio could be completed. The fund's foreign holdings, however, increased in value by 76 mln eur or 3.3 pct, according to the appraisers. Depreciation of the domestic German properties is about 222 mln eur, or 5.7 pct of their earlier worth. and concluded with the make-up of foreign to domestic property holding is about 40 pct to 60 pct.
By: Dijon Wainwright
http://www.realestateportal.org/article.php?story=20060302100628553