Goodman European Logistics Fund (GELF) completed €209 mln of new acquisitions in 2012.
Goodman European Logistics Fund (GELF) completed €209 mln of new acquisitions in 2012.
GELF, which is managed by Australian listed industrial property specialist Goodman Group, also announced that it negotiated 818,000 m2 of leasing activity during the 2012 calendar year, representing 25% of the portfolio's total lettable area.
The acquisitions included assets from Goodman's development pipeline as well as a 40,000 m2 asset in Bremen, Germany.
Among the transactions were the acquisition of over 160,000 m2 of logistics warehouse space across four German locations and the acquisition of a 32,000 m2 warehouse in the French port city of Marseille.
The average lease terms to first break is 8.3 years.
GELF has the right of first refusal on all properties developed by Goodman Group's continental European business.
New acquisitions continue to be managed by Goodman's in-house asset and property management team. Tenants include blue chip companies such as DB Schenker; Kuehne + Nagel; Amazon; DHL and DSV.
Emmanuel Van der Stichele, GELF fund director, said access to the Goodman pipeline coupled with the firepower to opportunistically pick up prime logistics real estate on the market is very attractive to investors.
'As the sector further matures with specialised operators, we are seeing increased interest from institutional investors attracted by high and stable income returns. Several metrics indicate that the market is at an attractive point in the cycle with sustained occupier demand for prime assets, which are becoming increasingly scarce. E-commerce, for example, is a particularly strong driver of demand for logistics warehouse space,' he said.
GELF is one of Europe's largest unlisted specialist logistics funds with a €1.9 bn pan-European portfolio of modern, prime logistics assets.
