Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), the central bank arm which runs Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, has made a trio of logistics deals via its partnership with asset manager Prologis – buying in Germany and selling for twice that value in the US.
The manager of the NOK12trn (€1.1trn) Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) said that in a transaction completed on 30 June, it had made a €108m investment in a 47% share of 11 logistics properties in Berlin and the Rhine-Ruhr area, with its long-term partner Prologis buying the other 53%.
Without naming the seller, the Oslo-based organisation said it had bought the assets from a “German listed real estate company”.
The 11 properties have a total leasable area of 548,000sqm, NBIM said, adding that they were “unencumbered by debt, and no financing was involved in the transaction”.
NBIM said the Prologis partnership sold 27 logistics properties located in several parts of the US, including Memphis, Louisville, Seattle, Baltimore/DC and South Florida to a fund managed by Ares Management.
NBIM said it received $206m (€175m) for its 45% interest in the assets, and that the sale was completed last week, on 14 July, based on an agreement signed on 2 June.
In all, these 27 properties have 5.1m sqft of leasable space, the GPFG’s manager said, and were acquired as part of a bigger portfolio transaction in January 2020.
NBIM also said its link-up with Prologis had sold a US logistics property in Jeffersonville, Southern Indiana, in a deal completed on 17 May to a fund managed by Hines, for which NBIM alone received $45m for its 45% interest.
The building had total leasable area of a million square feet, it said, adding that the joint venture had bought the asset as part of a larger portfolio transaction back in 2015.
Logistics assets were the main contributor to strong performance for unlisted real estate in 2020, Chief Real Assets Officer Mie Holstad said in February, even though overall, unlisted real estate investments ended last year with a 0.1% loss.
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