Monday, 5 October 2026
DWS has agreed to acquire Peakside Capital Advisors, bringing a specialist real estate manager with more than EUR 1.7 billion of assets under management into its European investment business. The transaction gives DWS additional capabilities in Germany and Central and Eastern Europe, including an established operation in Poland.
The agreement covers 100% of Peakside and is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other standard conditions. The companies have not disclosed the value of the transaction.
Peakside is headquartered in Zug and has teams in Frankfurt, Warsaw, Munich and Luxembourg. Its approximately 45 professionals manage investments across office, logistics, retail and residential property, predominantly on behalf of institutional capital. The company has acquired around EUR 4.8 billion of real estate and related investments during its history.
The acquisition is intended to broaden DWS’s ability to invest in properties requiring more intensive management, repositioning or other measures designed to create additional value. It also provides DWS with an existing investment infrastructure in CEE rather than requiring the group to build those capabilities independently.
Peakside’s existing management will remain with the business following completion. Founders Stefan Aumann and Boris Schran, together with Simon Lutz, will continue with the company, as will senior management members Frank Schäfer and Karol Maziukiewicz. DWS also expects the wider Peakside team to remain in place.
“The acquisition of Peakside is an important step in strengthening our Alternatives platform,” said Stefan Hoops, CEO of DWS. He added that the deal reinforces the group’s intention to expand its real estate activities and adds an established investment track record to its existing European operation.
For Peakside, joining DWS provides access to a substantially larger institutional investor network and international distribution platform. Aumann said combining the two companies’ respective capabilities should create opportunities to expand the business, while Schran emphasised continuity for existing clients and investments.
The scale of Peakside is relatively small compared with DWS as a whole. DWS managed approximately EUR 1.19 trillion at the end of June 2026, meaning the strategic importance of the acquisition lies less in the additional assets under management than in the specialist team, investment experience and regional network being added to its European real estate platform.
For the CEE investment market, the transaction places an established regional real estate manager inside one of Europe’s largest asset-management groups. Peakside’s Warsaw presence and existing investment activity across the region will give DWS a larger local platform from which to pursue future property opportunities once the acquisition is completed.
