International real estate firm Hines has invested £80m (€88.5m) to buy a UK logistics park on behalf of its core European fund.
The manager’s Hines Pan-European Core Fund (HECF) has acquired the 19,418sqm Dnata City site near London’s Heathrow Airport from the Airport Industrial Property Unit Trust (AIPUT), a fund managed by Aberdeen Standard Investments.
The acquired site, developed in 2013, comprises three logistical warehouses that provide air cargo campus facilities.
The Heathrow acquisition represents the fourth urban logistics investment by HECF, and the third in Greater London, over the last 18 months, the manager said.
Peter Epping, senior MD and HECF fund manager at Hines, said: “Given the heavily supply-constrained location, we see strong long-term prospects for this prime asset beside one of Europe’s busiest airports, which will be a critical part of the UK’s travel and logistics infrastructure beyond the pandemic.
“This latest acquisition continues our strategy of leveraging our European platform and aggregating an urban logistics portfolio for HECF in European cities with the strongest long-term growth prospects.”
Greg Cooper, director of industrials and logistics at Hines UK, said: “The Heathrow logistics market boasts defensive characteristics of restricted supply, limited new development opportunities and an acute shortage of Grade A fit-for-purpose accommodation.”
Nick Smith, fund manager, AIPUT said: “This sale is in line with our strategy to adjust the AIPUT portfolio to facilitate new investment opportunities presented in the post-COVID, post-Brexit world, and leverage the economic recovery when it comes.
“We will redeploy the proceeds into strategic airport locations with the strongest potential to generate value, including those within our portfolio where we will secure higher returns for our investors.”
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