The Carlyle Group and Safestore’s joint venture has invested an undisclosed amount to buy Opslag XL, a self-storage operator with three stores in The Netherlands.

Opslag XL’s 75,000sqft portfolio includes two freehold locations in The Hague and Hilversum regions and one short leasehold in Amsterdam.

The Carlyle Group has an 80% shareholding in the joint venture which was established in August 2019 via the €540m Carlyle Europe Realty (CER) fund, with the FTSE 250-listed Safestore holding the remaining 20% stake in the venture.

This acquisition represents CER’s third add-on acquisition for its platform with Safestore, and it follows last year’s acquisition of Lokabox in Belgium and the acquisition of M3 Self Storage in The Netherlands, in September 2019.

Marc-Antoine Bouyer, managing director on the Carlyle Europe Realty advisory team, said: “This acquisition represents the next step in establishing a significant platform in the rapidly growing European self-storage market, which has benefitted from positive demographic and social trends and been resilient during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We look forward to continuing to work alongside Safestore to unlock further value in our portfolios and seek additional opportunities in the European self-storage market.”

Frederic Vecchioli, CEO of Safestore said: “This acquisition increases our exposure to the attractive Dutch self-storage market. In combining the specialist industry knowledge of Safestore with the pan-European investing experience of Carlyle, we continue to identify prime development and acquisition opportunities, building on our multi-country, highly scalable platform.”

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