Valor Real Estate Partners and QuadReal Property have formed a joint venture to invest €1bn urban logistics assets located in key UK, French and German cities.

QuadReal, the real estate arm of British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, will be the majority investor in the partnership, which will have initial capital commitments of €440m. With leverage, the newly launched value-add and develop to hold investment platform is expected to have more than €1bn of investable capital.

European logistics and industrial property manager Valor will be responsible for sourcing and managing the portfolio.

The venture will focus primarily on last-mile logistics assets located in the greater metropolitan areas of London, Paris and Berlin, with a secondary focus on major UK and EU gateway cities, such as Manchester, Lyon and Frankfurt.

Christian Jamison, managing partner, Valor Real Estate, said: “The strategically important European urban, infill market continues to offer significant opportunities for nimble and fully-integrated managers to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns.

“There remains a critical shortage of warehouse space in major metropolitan areas close to the necessary infrastructure to meet occupiers’ requirements, an imbalance that is growing as a result of both near term drivers, such as COVID-19, as well as long term drivers, such as urbanisation.

“It remains however a highly fragmented and granular segment of the industrial market which requires strong local expertise as well as technical skills, which we have demonstrated over the years in building our current portfolio.”

Jay Kwan, MD Europe, QuadReal Property, said: “Urban logistics is one of our highest conviction strategies globally given the e-commerce growth that has accelerated rapidly as a result of COVID-19 and which is forcing businesses of all shapes and sizes to ensure their distribution networks are fit-for-purpose.

“Valor is a fast-growing platform with proven capital deployment capabilities, and this new venture continues our strategy of working with best-in-class real estate partners with exceptional track records of generating strong returns.”

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