New York-based investment firm KKR and UK company Round Hill Capital are believed to be among the bidders for a 500,000 m2 logistics portfolio being marketed by Spanish department store retailer El Corte Inglés.
The two are seeking logistics assets having just announced that a joint venture they have formed with Spanish developer Pulsar Properties, Pulsar Iberia Logistics, is forward funding four projects in Madrid and Barcelona totalling 94,000 m2. The JV wants to create a 400,000 m2 logistics portfolio in the medium term, which makes it unlikely that this vehicle could swallow all of the El Corte Inglés assets.
The El Corte Inglés portfolio, which includes about 30 assets throughout Spain, is thought to be attracting bids of between €150 mln and €170 mln.
Spanish newspaper Expansión has reported that US-based Blackstone and Spanish REIT Merlin have also expressed interest in the portfolio, which includes six warehouses totalling 88,000 m2 in Madrid and 41,000 m2 in Tarragona, with other assets in cities including Alicante, La Coruña, Málaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Seville, Valencia, Vigo and Zaragoza. The portfolio does not include El Corte Ingles’s strategic logistics buildings in Madrid and Barcelona.
As EuroProperty reported (10 January), El Corte Inglés appointed PwC to assess sale options for a total portfolio of 130 non-strategic real estate assets thought to be worth between €1.5 bn and €2 bn and having a total area of more than 2 million m2. This larger portfolio also includes shopping
centres, supermarkets, offices and development land throughout Spain.
The Pulsar Iberia Logistics joint venture, launched last week, is forward purchasing three assets in Madrid and another in Barcelona and is seeking other property in Spain and southern Europe to build a southern European logistics platform.
This article first appeared in EuroProperty, PropertyEU's sister publication
