The Dr. Peters Group is a German investment firm that builds investment funds based on tangible assets. The company is registered in Dortmund and has been operating since 1975 in the legal form of a limited partnership. The investment targets are mobile and immobile goods of the real economy such as ships, real estate and aircraft. Dr. Peters Group is no longer active on the secondary market for life insurances which was once part of the business.[2]
The funds are offered to investors in Germany and Austria via banks and free agents. Since 2013, the Dr. Peters Group has been designing funds for national and international institutional investors. The group is a member of the Bundesverband Sachwerte und Investmentvermögen e.V. (German Federal Association of Real Assets and Investment Assets).
The first fund was launched and invested in a retirement home in Dortmund. Since 1977, the company has directed the product brand DS-Fonds (DS = Dynamism & Safety). Until the end of the 1990s, the funds invested in different real estate segments such as hotels, care real estate, shopping centres and office buildings in Germany.
Beginning in 1990, the company invested in cargo ships which formed the focus of investment until 2007. After financing cooling ships, container ships and product tankers, the company introduced and established KG-financing of tankers subject to the long-term charter concept on the German market in 1998. From 2001 onwards, investments in bulk carriers, large container ships and foreign real estate (USA) followed.
Since 2007, the company has been investing in the aircraft field, among others by purchasing aircraft of the type Airbus A380-800.[3] This established the Dr. Peters Group as the pioneer in aircraft investments in Germany with 17 current aircraft investments.[4] Forecast dividends have all been paid until now.[5][6] The company has become the market leader in Germany with a total placed capital of 1.03 billion euros.[7]
Problems caused by the financing and shipping crisis
Currently, several of the ship funds suffer partly serious financial difficulties due to the financial and shipping crisis. Disbursements are currently partly no longer made. Insolvencies of funds have also occurred – e.g. Fund 111.[8] Investors in other funds were requested by the fund companies of the issuing house to repay their dividend payments.[9] This was partly stopped by the Federal Court of Justice with detailed arguments; in the cases decided to date, not the funds themselves but only their creditors could demand return of the disbursements.[10]
Total 51: 20 hotels, 12 retirement homes, 9 shopping centres, 6 foreign real estate units, 4 office/commercial buildings and one logistics real estate
Ships
42 oil/product tankers, 33 container ships, 8 mass good freighters, 2 gas tankers and 2 cooling ships
Aircraft
A total of 19, including 9 Airbus A380, 4 Boeing 777, 5 Boeing 787-8 (Dreamliner) and 2 Airbus A319 for airlines like Air France, Emirates or Singapore Airlines[12]
^"Equity - Aircraft funds"(PDF). VGF-Branchenzahlen Geschlossene Fonds 2012 (VGF Industry Numbers 2012). Bundesverband Sachwerte und Investmentvermögen e.V. 2014. Archived from the original(PDF) on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
