The real estate arm of investment firm Barings is investing £234m (€278m) to buy eight logistics assets in the UK from NFU Mutual.
Barings Real Estate said it has agreed to buy the fully-let 1.48m sqft portfolio as part of a pan-European strategy to acquire core real estate.
The assets are located in the Midlands, the South West, the South East, and the North West.
Darren Hutchinson, managing director and head of UK real estate transactions at Barings, said: “As one of our preferred investment sectors, alongside offices and residential, we are always keen to explore opportunities in the logistics space.
“We believe the pricing shift in the sector, in particular for CPI-linked assets with cap and collars, represents a short-term relative value opportunity, particularly given the strength of the sector’s long-term fundamentals.”
Charles Weeks, the head of European and Asia Pacific real estate at Barings, said: “The UK logistics market continues to perform strongly from an occupational perspective and we believe provides robust characteristics to support our longer-term investment strategy.
“Our appetite remains for other core and value-add real estate opportunities in the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the Nordics.”
Jon Brice, fund manager at NFU Mutual said: “The transaction represents a continuation of NFU Mutual’s industrial strategy.”
Barings was represented by Acre and CMS. NFU Mutual was advised by Burbage Realty, Knight Frank and Gowlings.
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