NREP has created a €1.1bn Nordic logistics platform with Danish, Swedish and German institutional investors.
Investors in the NREP Logistics Property Fund include Sweden’s AP1, and Denmark’s PFA Pension, DIP, JØP, and Lægernes Pension.
German institutions Allianz and Helaba Invest have also backed the vehicle, which has been seeded with an initial 1.1m sqm portfolio of 49 assets with an average eight years left on leases.
NREP said it will look to grow the platform over time.
Gustaf Lilliehook, head of investor relations and business development, said the firm has created the fund to achieve scale and build a “dominant platform” across the logistics sector in the Nordic region.
“It allows us to approach the sector with a more customer-centric approach,” he said. “While each of the Nordic countries are distinct markets, from a servicing and tenant perspective, you need scale.
“You can reduce volatility of income and risk exposure. A larger portfolio where, for example, lease expiries are staggered over time, makes sense.”
Lilliehook said the Nordics has been “something of a white space for some of the larger, pan-European platforms”, while many institutional investors have “grown more familiar in recent years with modern logistics”.
Johan Temse, investment manager at AP1, said logistics property was an “interesting way to capitalise on future global trade, consumption, e-commerce and supply-chain reconfiguration”.
The portfolio will be managed by NREP’s logistics operating platform, Logicenters.
“Additional support from long-term capital will strengthen Logicenters position as a long-term developer and provider of modern logistics in the Nordic region,” said Matthias Kettelhoit, who was hired last month as Logicenters’ commercial head, having been chief executive of Aditro Logistics.
The private equity firm launched its value-add NREP Logistics I vehicle in 2010, generating a 28.1% gross interal rate of return.
