Net lease real estate investment trust WP Carey has added seven DIY retail stores in Poland to its portfolio.
The NYSE-listed company has bought the newly built assets totalling 70,000sqm from private real estate firm Supernova Group for an undisclosed sum.
WP Carey said the stores are leased to OBI, adding that the DIY retailer has been a tenant of WP Carey since 2006, and following this acquisition, WP Carey will own 25 OBI retail stores across Poland.
Christopher Mertlitz, the head of European investments at WP Carey, said: “We are excited to build on our existing relationship with OBI and add seven high-quality DIY retail assets to our portfolio. DIY retail continues to remain attractive as an asset class due to its resiliency and the fact that it has remained largely insulated from e-commerce disruption.
“Within retail, our investment activity is generally focused on essential retail assets in Europe, where we see more compelling opportunities given higher barriers to entry and lower retail square footage per capita relative to the US, coupled with more favourable supply fundamentals and pricing dynamics.”
Frank Albert, Supernova Group, said: “We typically follow a long-term buy-and-hold strategy with assets linked to our long-term partner OBI.
”However, given the presence of the established investor WP Carey in the Polish market and its track record and experience, we saw an opportunity to further our partnership with WP Carey and decided to step out of this high-quality retail portfolio.”
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