A new US logistics real estate investment partnership between South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) and Stockbridge is buying a 14.3m sqft portfolio in a $2bn (€1.6bn) deal.

Stockbridge said the newly created joint venture, formed to buy core US logistics properties, has teamed up with Stockbridge’s open-end core fund and an unnamed additional institutional investor to buy the portfolio.

IPE Real Assets understands that the assets were acquired in partnership with the Stockbridge Smart Markets Fund from Hillwood Investment Properties for $2bn, an amount which represents the largest industrial transaction this year.

The portfolio includes recently completed and soon-to-be-completed properties.

PGIM Real Estate said it provided a $356m to Stockbridge for the acquisition.

Scott Kim, head of the real estate investment division at NPS, said: “We are excited to acquire high-quality industrial properties that are well aligned with our strategy to capitalise on the paradigm shift to e-commerce.

“This acquisition will be an excellent addition to our real estate portfolio. Additionally, our local presence in New York has allowed us to quickly underwrite the portfolio and manage partner relationships to successfully form this venture.”

Terry Fancher, Stockbridge executive managing director, said: “We see this acquisition as an exceptional way of tapping into the rapid acceleration of e-commerce growth—one of the most impactful investment themes post-COVID, and likely of the decade to come.

“The tremendous ongoing support of our venture partners has afforded us the opportunity to transact quickly and nimbly in order to access these kinds of rare opportunities at scale.”

Nicole Stagnaro, Stockbridge managing director, said: “This is an extraordinary-quality core portfolio considering its modern construction, high-credit and e-commerce tenant base, and long-term leases,

“It’s difficult to find better cash-flow visibility across private equity real estate today, particularly in a period of broad market uncertainty.”

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