Barings Real Estate Advisers has acquired a logistics asset in Madrid for €35 mln, PropertyEU can reveal.
'This transaction, our second in Spain within just a few months, highlights our strong appetite for investments in the region,' said Gunther Deutsch, head of transactions Europe at Barings Real Estate Advisers. 'Our main focus is on the retail, logistics and office sectors on a risk spectrum from core to value-add, as well as being able to forward fund developments.'
The latest deal involves a 56,000 m2 logistics unit that is fully let to Ceva, a global logistics and freight management business, which recently renewed its lease.
Barings purchased the property as part of its core investment strategy across Europe from German asset manager GLL Real Estate Partners.
The logistics unit is located in a distribution area with direct access to the A4 corridor which is south of the Spanish capital, as well as having direct access to the R4 toll-way, connecting Madrid with southern Spain.
Heavily under-supplied
Barings said that the area is 'heavily under-supplied' with good logistics space, while forecast GDP growth, higher employment levels and an increasing internet sales penetration rate provide a strong macro-environment for the investment.
'We believe in the attractive supply/demand dynamics in the Madrid logistics market which is underpinned by an improving economy. The continued growth in market share from online sales is likely to significantly impact the demand for good quality and well located logistics units such as this core investment,' said Adolfo Favieres, country head of Spain at Barings Real Estate Advisers.
Barings, a $271 bn (€255 bn) global asset management firm, has one of the largest diversified businesses that provides core, value-added, and opportunistic investment and advisory services.
The real estate arm had €3.8 bn of assets under management in Europe at end-September 2016. The real estate team opened an office in Madrid in late 2015 and carried out its first investment in the market, a prime retail asset in Madrid, in July 2016. Two months ago the company appointed Carlos de Oya as director for asset management in Spain as part of the ongoing expansion of its European network.
