Intensified Focus on Real estate business in the Netherlands
Christoph Schmitz-Wenzel to head new location

Munich/Amsterdam – BayernLB is expanding its real estate business in the Netherlands and will be opening its own sales office this year in Amsterdam on 1 July. Focus of the Bank will be commercial real estate customers from the Netherlands.

Already in early 2022 BayernLB launched its Immo2024 programme, which included a new positioning of its real estate acitivies in its domestic as well as international branches in New York, London, Paris and Milan, in order to be even closer to its customers and the real estate markets. Setting up the office in Amsterdam is the next step in line with that strategy.

“The Netherlands is a European hub, which makes it a highly attractive market for commercial real estate. With our experienced specialists and vast real estate financing expertise, we see solid potential for growth there that matches perfectly with our conservative risk profile and goal of further diversification of our portfolio. By having a sales office in the heart of Amsterdam, we’ll be directly on site for our Dutch real estate customers and therefore able to serve them with the same high level of quality enjoyed at our other locations,” said Gero Bergmann, management board member of BayernLB

As head of the Amsterdam office, Christoph Schmitz-Wenzel, 53, will start up the location which will then be complemented with further staffing.

Schmitz-Wenzel began his career at BayernLB in 1995 as a trainee. A since-then proven specialist in the international commercial real estate business, he will be transferring from Munich to Amsterdam. Schmitz-Wenzel’s in-depth real estate experience, especially in the UK and the Benelux countries, dates back as long as 1997. He also had taken up different posts, both at the Munich Head Office and outside Germany, in financing and risk management. This included a stint in Asia from 1998 to 2004, where his most recent position, following his secondment in Tokyo, was branch manager of BayernLB’s then-branch office in Malaysia. He then went on to assume various functions back at the Munich Head Office and in the London branch office, helping in the process to shape the Bank’s financing activities for international real estate and real estate funds.

Alexander Huber, who manages the Bank’s international Real Estate Division, commented as follows: “We’re very happy that we could get Christoph Schmitz-Wenzel to head the set- up and establishment of our Branch in the Netherlands and establish us further in the market.. With Christoph, one of our most experienced real estate managers with a long and international track record, will be part of building up the branch from the beginning.

We’re already excited about new contacts and discussions with the professional market players that we’ll be able to serve personally, directly from Amsterdam.”

The BayernLB Group already has a foothold in Amsterdam – through its real estate asset management subsidiary Real I.S. – Real I.S. has opened their office in Amsterdam already in 2018. BayernLB’s new branch office for its commercial real estate financing operations is only the next logical step in making more of the Group’s services available in the Netherlands.

About BayernLB

BayernLB is one of the leading commercial bank in Germany and has established itself as a bank focused on future orientated sectors of the German economy. The BayernLB Group is one of the country’s top property financiers and asset managers. Through its Real Estate Division, a core business area, the Bank finances property in all asset classes – of-fices, retail space, residential property, logistics centres and managed real estate. BayernLB’s customer base is widely diversified, ranging from project developers to private investors and housing companies, to institutional fund sponsors and asset management companies. BayernLB’s banking products include everything from short-term project finance to long-term commercial financing – where applicable also incorporating government subsidy schemes and joint financing with saving banks and syndicate banks. BayernLB is represented with offices for their real estate customers in locations in Germany, Europe as well as the USA.