NEON EQUITY AG plans further expansion of its investment in publity through extensive share purchases
- Purchases of the publity share also planned at significantly higher share prices
- Expansion of the publity stake to almost 55 % in recent months
- Acquisition of over 210,000 shares in 2023 mainly through purchases on the stock exchange
- Significant upturn in publity’s business expected from the end of 2024
- German commercial real estate in demand among US investors due to falling prices
Frankfurt am Main, December 7, 2023 - NEON EQUITY AG (“NEON EQUITY”, ISIN: DE000A3DW408), a founder-led investor and growth enabler, plans to further expand its stake in publity AG (“publity”, ISIN: DE0006972508). To this end, NEON EQUITY will continue its extensive share purchases, primarily on and off the stock exchange. NEON EQUITY will also continue its purchases at share prices significantly above the current price level. The background to this is publity’s positive long-term business prospects in NEON EQUITY’s opinion and the low valuation of the company on the stock exchange from the investor’s point of view. Accordingly, NEON EQUITY has already increased its stake in publity to almost 55% in recent months by acquiring shares with a volume of more than 210,000 shares (since the beginning of 2023). Most of the purchases were made on the stock exchange.
NEON EQUITY expects a significant upturn in publity’s business in the next 12-18 months. Demand for German commercial real estate should then pick up, particularly among US investors. In a real estate market that is likely to continue to be characterized by declining prices, US investors are expected to use this environment as a favorable opportunity to enter German commercial real estate in the long term. Favorable factors could be falling interest rates in the USA in the coming quarters and the upcoming election year 2024. As an experienced asset manager with a focus on German commercial real estate and extensive market expertise, NEON EQUITY believes publity should benefit in particular from this development and participate through finders’ fees and ongoing fees.
Thomas Olek, founder and CEO of NEON EQUITY AG: “We remain completely convinced of the publity business model. The current crisis is leading to a market shakeout - both in the area of real estate companies and investors, but also among real estate asset managers. publity is already one of the top 3 real estate asset managers in Germany and will emerge stronger from the consolidation due to its market position and continued solid basis. publity has a particularly strong network of investors in the Anglo-American region. These investors are usually the first to return as buyers in the late phase of real estate crises. As a major shareholder and investor, we want to take advantage of this opportunity for our shareholders and therefore continue to buy publity shares. As the majority shareholder of NEON EQUITY, I am also investing my own money to a large extent, which underlines the fact that I consider the current publity share prices on the stock market to be clearly too low.”