MUNICH-German insurer Allianz aims to restructure its property portfolio, boosting indirect investments to 20% from around 5% now, and shifting its asset focus away from the current dominance of office and toward retail, says CEO Olivier Piani.

Allianz RE currently owns $26.7 billion in property assets, and Piani reiterated to a recent news conference his earlier remarks that the goal remains to increase this to around $43 billion in the next few years. He said Allianz targets annual real estate investment growth of some 12% per annum.

The share of office assets across the portfolio will be cut to 60% from around 70% now, while the proportion of retail investments will rise to 20% from some 5%. The overall target yield across the real estate holdings is 5%-6%, and the risk focus remains on core assets, Piani said.

In terms of geography, it has placed its main focus on Germany, and will reduce the weighting in Europe ex-Germany to around 75% from 91% at present. It also intends to increase its US holdings - where he sees strong investment opportunities - to some 15% of total from just 2% now. Last year, Allianz added well over $2.8 billion in net new assets to the portfolio. Among other investments, in Germany it paid $291 million for a large portfolio of Aldi discount grocery stores in the south, as well as $267 million for the Triton House office complex in Frankfurt, and $161 million for the Spherion office block in D