Prelios enters logistics market with new fund launch

Prelios SGR has launched an institutional fund targeting Italian logistics properties.

The Italian real estate investment manager has bought a portfolio of three assets for €75m to seed the newly launched fund.

The Fondo Logita vehicle will offer investors exposure to “next generation logistics properties”, Prelios said.

Andrea Cornetti, general manager of the institutional investment arm of Prelios Group, said the company was targeting Italian and international investors.

“[It] is intended for institutional investors with a medium-to-low risk-return profile, interested in constant returns, including foreign investors specialised in the logistics sector and some international pension funds,” he said.

The aim is to eventually own a €350m portfolio covering 600,000sqm of commercial space. The fund will only invest in recently constructed assets leased to “market leading” tenants on contracts of nine to 16 years.

Cornetti said the fund “will focus, for the most part, on next-generation logistic centres, state-of-the art assets featuring integrated services tied to logistics, equipped with high-level facilities and security systems”.

The three logistics assets bought for the fund are located in central northern Italy.

“With this acquisition, Prelios SGR enters the logistics real estate market, a high-growth sector that at the same time attracts international investment and is also a catalyst for local economic growth,” Cornetti, said.

“The transaction we finalised today, after the launch of the Madison Imperiale Fund and the roll-over of the Raissa Fund, is the third significant transaction with leading international institutional investors concluded since the beginning of the year.”

Earlier this year, Prelios also launched its real estate fund in Germany.