The “pension fund of one of the world’s largest companies” is among investors that have provided more than €100m of capital for Realogis Real Estate’s German logistics fund.
Managing director Bodo Hollung did not name the company but he said the greatest interest was coming from real estate investors that were looking to the logistics sector for the first time.
Realogis is hoping to raise a total of €150m by the end of the year, giving the German specialist fund manager €250m to invest in the market once debt financing is included.
The company said it had approximately 20 assets worth €275m in the pipeline and that the investment phase will start soon.
Hollung said it had five exclusive deals on the table and the company was in talks on the purchase of five more properties.
He also announced a second fund most likely to be set up as soon as the first is fully invested, which is scheduled to happen in mid-2016.
The first fund is scheduled to run for 10 years with an expected annualised yield of 7%.
IntReal Service-KAG is serving as the administration platform for the fund.
In an interview with IPE’s German language website IPE Institutional Investment before the summer, Hollung had noted “macro-trends like globalisation, outsourcing of logistics by companies as well as e-commerce” were also attracting more and more pension funds, foundations, family offices and banks to logistics.
A “heightened interest by investors in logistics real estate” was also noted earlier this month by Austrian Immofinanz when it announced it was existing the logistics market in central Europe because of competition.
Immofinanz CEO Oliver Schumy said it was a good time to sell because the increased demand “is reflected in attractive price levels”.
