Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- IVG Immobilien AG, Germany’s largest commercial-property company, raised about 470 million euros ($700 million) from five real-estate sales across Europe to achieve its divestment target for this year.

The transactions, completed in “recent weeks,” were in Milan, Paris, Luxembourg, Dusseldorf and Budapest, IVG said in a statement today. The company has now sold properties for more than the 1 billion euros it aimed for this year.

IVG benefited from a “dramatic” increase in interest from investors, Chief Executive Officer Gerhard Niesslein said in an interview on Sept. 16. Pension funds, institutional investors, wealthy families and non-German buyers have turned to real estate in the second half as they seek higher returns than they can get from cash, the CEO said.

IVG, based in Bonn, is raising cash and scrapping speculative developments to cut risk and focus more on asset management. Earlier this year, it extended the maturity of 1.3 billion euros of loans.

The investment company climbed as much as 5.1 percent in Frankfurt trading and was up 33 cents, or 4.3 percent, at 7.95 euros at 9:19 a.m. The shares have gained 41 percent in six months while Germany’s CDAX Performance Index has risen 29 percent.

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Blackman in Berlin at ablackman@bloomberg.net; Peter Woodifield in Edinburgh at pwoodifield@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 16, 2009 03:22 EDT