Cairn Real Estate, the Dutch subsidiary of Germany's MPC Capital, has teamed up with an Asian investor to acquire a portfolio of 10 supermarket-anchored retail assets in the Netherlands for €60 mln. Separately Cairn has purchased €35 mln of German and Dutch logistics properties.
Cairn's joint venture partner in the transaction is AT Capital Group, a Singapore-based private investment firm with $2.5 bn (€2.2 bn) of assets under management. This was AT Capital's first investment in Dutch real estate.
The bulk of the 27,500 m2 portfolio is classified as core, but Cairn intends to gain added value through targeted improvements to the buildings and the tenant structure. Some 98% of the space is let to high-value clients including supermarket chains such as Albert Heijn, Aldi, EMTE and Jumbo, the buyers said.
Cairn said it anticipates 'a consistently stable development in demand from the local supply of everyday items via supermarkets, drugstores and bakeries'. Over the past eight years, supermarket revenues in the Netherlands have grown by around 2.5% per annum.
Taking a long-term strategic partnership with AT Capital Group as the basis, the plan is to expand the portfolio through further acquisitions of individual properties and links with additional property portfolios. For that purpose a new joint venture was set up called Dutch Ream.
Logistics/industrial deal
In a separate transaction, Cairn purchased four logistics and light industrial assets for €35 mln on behalf of the Real Estate Growth Fund, an alternative investment vehicle originally launched by ABN Amro and MeesPierson. Cairn took over the management of the fund 4 years ago.
The fund is already invested in properties in the logistics and light industrial sector in the Netherlands, with a total volume of around €115 mln. By way of a capital increase, four further properties have now been brought into the fund. This takes the total volume of the fund up to €150 mln. The acquisition sees Cairn and MPC Capital expanding the fund to the German market, as three of the four new properties are in western and northern Germany. The fourth is located in the Netherlands.
Cairn said further regional diversification of the fund portfolio into other selected European countries is envisaged. The volume of the logistics and light industrial fund is to be increased to €300-400 mln in the medium term.
'In realising this transaction, we have further strengthened our leading position in the Dutch market for commercial real estate,' said Roman Rocke, management board member of MPC Capital. 'Meanwhile we are laying the foundations for the expansion of our investment strategies. We are concentrating on market niches that profit from shifting consumer behaviour. Everyday items that aren't really suitable for sourcing over the increasingly popular channel of online shopping need to be available ideally at your local supermarket or bakery. In turn, the growth of online shopping creates a need for additional logistics structures and regional distribution centres.'
