The Cadillac Fairview, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and Boreal IM joint venture has completed its first transaction in Italy.
In the past 18 months, the JV has acquired assets in the UK, Netherlands, France and Spain.
Now the JV has revealed details of a maiden Italian investment, with the portfolio being acquired from closed ended funds managed by Kryalos, which is sponsored by Blackstone. Financial details were not disclosed.
A new vehicle has been created for the parties to the transaction to invest together further.
The package includes four fully-let and long-lease operational warehouses totalling 198,000 m2 and two development plots primarily in the Greater Milan region and all within the target market of the north of Italy.
The portfolio was acquired from Blackstone-sponsored closed-end real estate funds managed by Kryalos SGR, and the transaction was carried out in a newly established fund managed on behalf of the JV, also managed by Kryalos.
Cadillac Fairview, Boreal and Kryalos were advised by Linklaters, JLL and PwC. On the sell side, CBRE, DILS, Gattai, BNP Real Estate Property Management and 5Lex were retained as advisors, while Di Tanno Associati assisted in relation to regulatory and corporate aspects.
Paolo Bottelli, founder and CEO of Kryalos, said, ‘We are glad to include the Boreal-Cadillac Fairview JV among our investors and we look forward to working side by side to implement our joint strategy in the northern Italian logistics market, where we have been a market leader for years.'
Kryalos’ strategy is to acquire assets with a view to building improvements and increased energy efficiency in order to cater to the evolving demands of occupiers. This transaction proves the value of that approach, and we are committed to continuing to look for further opportunities to do this with the JV.’
Nikos Koulouras, Partner at Boreal IM, commented, ‘We are extremely happy to have completed our first acquisition in Italy, especially as the portfolio is very well located, fully let and offers development potential to capture growing demand for logistics space. Having established the Kryalos SGR JV in Italy, we now look forward to growing the portfolio further.’
Jenny Hammarlund, executive VP Investments, Cadillac Fairview, said: ‘The JV has entered the Italian market with conviction, having carried out detailed diligence and we are confident about the potential of the northern Italian logistics market. We are now in five of our six target markets, giving us diversified exposure to outsized returns in the European logistics market. We are very pleased to be continuing to build the portfolio at speed, particularly in this more challenging market.’
