A €400 mln logistics portfolio occupied by Amazon is said to have attracted huge interest from Korean capital.
According to a news report by PropertyEU's sister publication EuroProperty, the Project Neptune portfolio received nine separate bids, all from Korean investors.
Amazon is selling three of its largest new logistics centres, located in Barcelona, Paris and Bristol, in a sale-and-leaseback transaction advised by CBRE. Two parties are believed to have been selected in the final round of bidding.
In a relatively unusual step, Amazon decided to fix the price of the distribution centres and instead invite interested parties to make rental bids.
A surge in Korean capital bidding on European property has been notable this year. The majority of investments made by Korean investors have been in offices, with more than €2.26 bn alone committed in five London office transactions since February – but several times above that sum has been targeted at the market.
Korean Hanwha Group was underbidder when Plumtree Court recently sold to Korea’s NPS for €1.29 bn, for example.
Several more London office investments, including One Poultry and 125 Shaftesbury Avenue, are also said to be under offer to Korean buyers.
Agents say the interest Amazon has attracted is a sign that Korean investors are prepared to consider investing beyond long-leased offices in prime city markets.
The Neptune assets are: a 1.3 mln sq ft (120,774 m2) hub in Avonmouth, Bristol, priced at £110 mln (€123 mln); the online retailer’s new logistics centre close to Barcelona airport; and its giant centre south of Paris, at Bretigny-sur-Orge.
Some large investors ruled themselves out of the Neptune bidding, because they consider Amazon’s multi-level, highly automated logistics buildings to be too bespoke and therefore carrying a level of reletting risk not commensurate with the keen pricing of the investments.
Amazon is also the tenant in a big box development that Segro is selling near Rome. The top bid for the 155,668 m2 asset in Passo Corese near Fara in Sabina, 30 km north of the Italian capital, is rumoured to be sub 5%. JLL is advising Segro.
This article first appeared in EuroProperty, PropertyEU's weekly news and analysis bulletin.
