German real estate company Prime Office has entered the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Europe Index following its initial public offering on 1 July, making it the third German addition to the index since the beginning of the year. Prime Office adds a portfolio of over EUR 970 mln worth of real estate to the index.

The European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) is actively campaigning to increase the size of the listed real estate sector in Germany, which is relatively small compared to other European countries. Listed companies account for about EUR 10 bn in Germany, or only 1.6% of the underlying real estate market. This compares to almost 6% in France and 4.2% in the UK. The European average is about 3%.

Philip Charls, CEO of EPRA commented: 'We are very pleased with the addition of Prime Office to the EPRA Europe Index. In the past six months, the free float market capitalisation of German components in the Index has grown by about 33%. This is a very encouraging figure that of course we look at with cautious enthusiasm. There still is some way to go before Germany reaches the weight it deserves in the index'.

Prime Office AG currently has pre-REITstatus and the IPO opens the door to its conversion into a fully-fledged G-REIT. The conversion, coupled with the fast track entry into the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Europe Index, will serve to increase an already strong interest from investors, EPRA said.

The EPRA index is the leading global benchmark and most widely used investment index for listed real estate. Following the inclusion of Prime Office, the index contains 86 constituents and includes the leading property companies of 16 European economies. These represent a free-float market capitalisation of approximately EUR 100 bn.