Blackstone has bought a UK industrial portfolio from Clearbell.
The portfolio of eight assets, known as the Nevado portfolio, was sold by Clearbell’s Property Partners II fund.
The 1.6m sqft portfolio was bought by real estate funds managed by Blackstone for an undisclosed amount, understood to be around £125m (€140.1m).
Clearbell focused on distribution and logistics assets when building the portfolio, with a preference for “last mile” retailers and distributors.
Manish Chande, senior partner at Clearbell, said the opportunity to buy assets was now more challenging.
“There is still some mileage in the sector, but, in terms of value-add and opportunistic, the only way to get those returns is to create a platform, or you end up having to build speculatively,” he said.
The London-based private real estate fund manager began assembling the portfolio, which includes assets in the north west, the Midlands and south east, in April 2014.
The e-commerce sector was an area the firm felt offered growth, Chande said, with less competition for smaller assets in the “last mile” sub-sector.
Since acquiring the assets, the manager has secured 460,000 sqft of new leases.
A 202,000 sqft warehouse unit in Peterborough was let on a 25-year lease to Bokomo, the UK’s leading cereal maker, earlier this year.
Other tenants in the portfolio include a major online retailer, Shop Direct, Radial Inc and Cash Converters.
