Union Investment to buy 16,000 German apartments from Chinese investor - sources

By Arno Schuetze

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German fund manager Union Investment is nearing a deal to buy about 16,000 German flats from BGP, a Chinese investor, in a roughly 2 billion euro (1.75 billion pounds) deal, people close to the matter told Reuters.

Union Investment is planning to merge the targeted real estate firm BGP Group with its own property platform and eventually transfer the properties to its investment funds, the sources added.

"We welcome the exclusive negotiations," said Worna Zohari, Chief Executive Officer of BGP Group.

(Reporting by Arno Schuetze,; Editing by Tassilo Hummel)