US asset management giant Blackstone has sealed two major logistics portfolio acquisitions in Portugal, PropertyEU can reveal.
Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe (BREP) has entered into agreements to acquire two high-quality portfolios covering 530,000 m2 for a total of around €325 mln.
The deal nearly doubles Blackstone’s logistics platform in Portugal where the group owns around 550,000 m2 of assets.
Blackstone is looking to invest around €15 mln of capex in upgrading vacant units including €3 mln dedicated to ESG-related capex initiatives.
One portfolio has been acquired from local lender Novo Banco for €200 mln and consists of 20 high-quality logistics assets. It benefits from high-quality specifications and is very well located with 97% of the portfolio’s total value in last mile locations in the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas.
The sale was first announced by the vendor earlier this month but the buyer was not disclosed.
Logicor, a Blackstone portfolio company and a major European owner and manager of logistics real estate, will provide property management and leasing services to the portfolio.
Blackstone is also closing on the acquisition of a portfolio of 15 high-quality logistics assets totaling 189,000 m2. The package is being acquired from M7 for a total purchase price of €125 mln. Nearly three quarters of the portfolio is well located in the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas.
‘This is an exciting opportunity for Blackstone to expand its logistics portfolio in Portugal,’ commented James Seppala, head of European Real Estate, Blackstone. ‘We continue to invest thematically and the acquisition of these two high-quality logistics portfolios demonstrates our confidence in the sector. Portugal continues to see strong demand from tenants for last mile space and we look forward to repositioning these assets to welcome new tenants.’
Logistics is one of Blackstone’s high-conviction investment segments together with life sciences. Portugal is currently one of several logistics markets in Europe seeing exceptionally robust tenant demand, with take-up by tenants recently driving market vacancy down to a historical low of 2%. Blackstone manages a 40million m2 European logistics portfolio.
