Barings Real Estate Advisers (formerly Cornerstone) has entered the French market by acquiring a land plot in the northern city of Lille for a new build-to-suit refrigerated warehouse.
A vacant building in the CRT Lesquin industrial and logistics zone of Lille will be demolished to make way for the construction of a 10,290 m2 warehouse that will be occupied by supply chain specialist XPO Logistics on a fixed nine-year lease. Virtuo Industrial Property has been contracted to develop the warehouse, with delivery scheduled for November 2017.
The acquisition marks Barings Real Estate Advisers' debut investment in the country, following the opening of its Paris office and the appointment of Severine Laffineur in late 2015. The asset was purchased on behalf of its pan-European core investment strategy, which targets attractive cash returns by investing in office, retail and industrial assets in major European markets. Barings was advised by Oudot & Associés (Notary) and Fairway (lawyers). Tostain & Laffineur acted as the broker.
'The logistics sector continues to present a compelling case in France as well as Europe more broadly, as it has benefited hugely from structural changes in the way that consumers and companies operate in past years,' Laffineur said. 'This asset is well positioned to take advantage of this, offering over 10,000 m2 of Grade A space that is fully let to a strong tenant in a key area of French logistics.'
Gunther Deutsch, European head of transactions at Barings Real Estate Advisers, commented: 'Upon completion, this Grade A unit in CRT Lesquin will provide us with exposure to one of the key French logistics markets through a core income-producing asset, acquired at an attractive price due to the forward-funding structure of the acquisition. It is exactly the type of investment we are looking to make for our pan-European core investment strategy and is the ideal entry point for Barings Real Estate Advisers in France.'
Barings said CRT Lesquin is one of the most sought-after regions on the 'dorsale' axis, France's prime logistics corridor that connects Lille in the North, via Paris and Lyon, to Marseille in the south of the country.
Barings manages $284 bn (€268 bn) of assets across a range of strategies. The firm's $50.4 bn global real estate business comprised $15.4 bn of private equity, $25 bn of private debt, $7 bn of real estate securities and $3 bn of structured investments at end-June this year. The European portfolio comprised $2.9 bn of private real estate equity and $1.1 bn of private real estate debt.
