A Patrizia fund, in partnership with Danish pension fund PFA and South Korea’s Public Officials Benefit Association, has acquired a €1.2bn European logistics portfolio from BentallGreenOak’s GreenOak Europe Fund II value-add fund.
PFA said it is investing DKK2.6bn (€348m), an amount which represents more than half of the equity in the acquisition of the portfolio of 42 logistics assets located in France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.
Patrizia, which is investing on behalf of its Logistik-Invest Europa II (PLIE II) fund, said 39 of the assets are yielding properties as well as three forward purchased new logistics developments in Italy and Spain which are partially pre-let.
The portfolio comprises over 1.4m sqm of existing lettable area as well as a further 138.000sqm of lettable space for the three developments.
Rob Brook, head of alternative investments at Patrizia, said the acquires assets provide immediate exposure to a portfolio of institutional quality and scale across four separate markets, which will deliver robust, reliable returns to investors.
“Furthermore, with strong structural tailwinds and the highly attractive fundamentals of the logistics sector, we expect there to be additional potential opportunities for the portfolio to cover growth markets and to diversify the pan-European logistics platform further, due to a relatively low base of e-tailing penetration across Europe in contrast to some specific markets like the UK, Germany and The Netherlands.”
PFA’s head of real estate Michael Bruhn said the deal is a large step in the realisation of PFA’s property strategy, which is ”focused on more investments in suitable projects across Europe” and on a general increase in the number of foreign property investments in the years to come”.
BentallGreenOak said the assets were acquired between October 2016 and February 2019 and are located in France, Netherlands, Spain and Italy.
IPE Real Assets understands that the portfolio represents half of Fund II’s investments, excluding co-investments.
Francesco Ostuni, European equity CIO at BentallGreenOak, said as a value-add fund, GreenOak Europe Fund II’s strategy has been to acquire assets and then create further value and extending and renewing leases while increasing net operating income.
“BentallGreenOak continues to believe that the logistics sector offers one of the best risk-adjusted returns in European real estate, and we still have significant capital to invest in the sector as our teams identify opportunities across Europe.”
