LONDON (Reuters) - German real estate company IVG Immobilien (IVGG.)

LONDON (Reuters) - German real estate company IVG Immobilien (IVGG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday that its underground oil and gas storage cavern unit will treble its profit contribution to around a third of group earnings within 4-5 years

"On the longer-term, it will have more than 30 percent of our earnings," Chief Executive Officer Wolfhard Leichnitz said at the Reuters Real Estate Summit in London, while emphasizing that it also intended to expand its funds and investment business. "Today it is about 10 percent."

Leichnitz said IVG owned 40 caverns and had a license to develop another 90, each of which would have around 500,000 cubic meters (17.66 million cu ft) of capacity and would take the company around 10-12 years to complete, providing it with an internal rate of return of around 12 percent, he said.

"It's like a net asset value growing machine," Leichnitz said.