...PARIS (S&P Global Ratings) Sept. 6, 2016--S&P Global Ratings said today that its ratings on German residential property company Vonovia SE (###+/Stable/A-2) are not affected by the company's announced agreement to acquire Austria-based peer Conwert Immobilien Invest SE for a 3 billion purchase price that it plans to fully finance with shares. We think that Conwert Immobilien's assets--consisting of about 22,500 units mainly located in Germany are a good fit with Vonovia's asset profile. In our view, Vonovia's integration of the 2.6 billion target portfolio should strengthen the enlarged group's presence in cities like Berlin, Leipzig, and Potsdam, which enjoy healthy economic and demographic trends and are likely to support stable rent rates over the long term. We also consider Vonovia's entry into the Austrian residential market will be credit neutral, since this market's fundamentals appear very similar to those in Germany, namely a long average tenant stay, a healthy population, housing...
