The European arm of US logistics developer Panattoni has merged with the UK's First Industrial to form a new development company in the UK, named First Panattoni.
The merger coincides with the company’s announcement that it has raised a first phase capital facility of £300 mln (€338 mln) to spend on new land purchases and speculative development in the UK.
'Our customers and capital partners have been urging us for some time now to move to the UK, however, in the last few years we have been concentrating on volume in mainland Europe,' commented Robert Dobrzycki, Panattoni Europe's CEO. 'Having established Panattoni as one the largest industrial developers in Europe, our focus now is on building a UK business, so we can provide our clients an integrated pan-European platform with best-in-class development expertise.'
'The UK market has many similarities to a number of territories we successfully operate in,' added Dudley Mitchell, director of the Panattoni Development Corporation. 'Limited land supply and a slow permitting process means that land is expensive. To penetrate these capital intensive markets, you need to bid aggressively and spec build. We see the UK market with potential for 3,000,000 ft2 (280,000 m2) of new build product a year, but we’ll need to up scale the First Panattoni platform to meet these demands.'
Established in 2009, Warwick-based First Industrial has executed build-to-suit schemes for occupiers such as Marks and Spencer, the Co-op, Sainsbury’s, DHL and Amazon.
'We’ve never been afraid of advancing into new and competitive markets; with recent global uncertainties and the relative weakness of the pound, many of Panattoni’s capital partners will see this as a buying opportunity,' said Matthew Byrom, managing director of First Panattoni.
'From an international perspective, the UK still remains a hugely attractive place to invest in real estate, with its long leases and strong balance sheet customers. Couple this with the rental growth we’ve seen across the country, and the continued growth of the e-commerce phenomenon, the interest in this sector is likely to continue.'
