Europa Capital and Cromwell Property have launched a €150m German logistics investment joint venture.

Europa Capital, investing on behalf of its latest value add fund, said the new partnership will target logistics assets and portfolios with individual lot sizes starting from €8m.

The venture – which targets gross asset value of €150m – recently made its first investment, acquiring a 12,000sqm warehouse property near Cologne. The venture is also undertaking due diligence on other assets, the companies said in a joint statement.

Jason Oram, partner, fund manager at Europa Capital, said: “We have seen a significant increase in the demand for light industrial and last mile logistics assets from institutional investors. Real estate allocations have started to shift away from sectors, which have been adversely affected by ongoing structural changes in the industry and the COVID-19 pandemic, towards the logistics space, where we are able to leverage our track record.

“The sector has proven its resilience during the pandemic, evidenced by the high levels of rent collection we have recorded across our wider portfolio and we firmly believe that rents will grow for well-located assets within this sector over the course of our hold period in this venture.”

James Farmer, partner, origination and acquisitions at Europa Capital, said: “Strong occupational demand is being driven by a growing need for distribution space, which is putting upward pressure on rents and creating favourable conditions for us to reduce existing vacancies and improve valuations over the anticipated holding period of this platform.

“Continental Europe lags the US & UK in terms of e-commerce penetration and we believe that this will be a substantial driver of performance in the logistics sector in countries such as Germany over the next five years and beyond.”

Michael Bohde, head of Germany at Cromwell Property Group, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Europa Capital in order to build an attractive and marketable portfolio of assets over a four to five-year time horizon.

“As the largest light industrial and logistics market in Europe, Germany provides investors with exposure to a stable macro-economic environment, yields and well-established international brands.”

To read the digital edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.

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