I Squared Capital has created a $350m (€302m) cold storage infrastructure investment platform in Europe.
The global infrastructure manager, via its ISQ Global Infrastructure Fund III fund, has set up Cube Cold Europe to target cold storage facilities across ”strategic areas, such as ports and logistics hubs”.
The manager said the platform has been seeded with a portfolio of two assets in the Benelux region and serving customers near the ports of Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, and Rotterdam.
Cube Cold Europe recently bought Northfreeze, a cold storage and temperature-controlled transportation provider in Belgium as its second acquisition, I Squared said, adding that the platform also has a pipeline of “high-quality acquisition targets”.
Mohamed El Gazzar, partner of I Squared Capital in London, said: “We see strong growth potential for cold storage from the globalisation of trade, secular shifts in consumer behaviours, and the growing complexity of global food supply chains. In Europe in particular, the sector is highly fragmented, and we see an opportunity to employ our expertise in building complex and versatile infrastructure platforms.
“We are looking for additional assets in strategic locations that could benefit from operational optimization and innovation. For example, as cold storage facilities are high energy users, we plan to install renewables or other on-site generation facilities to ensure resilience, manage costs and lower carbon emissions.”
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