Investment giant Patrizia has acquired a newly built cold storage logistics asset near Milan, Italy, from Savills Investment Management, on behalf of its institutional clients through one of its flagship logistics funds.
Financial details were not disclosed.
The 31,000 m2 cold storage asset was completed in Q2 2021 and is fully let to Kühne & Nagel, a pan-European 3rd party logistics company, and Movi.Log, a frozen food distributor, with a weighted average lease term of 7.5 years.
Pierluigi Scialanga, head of transactions at Patrizia Italy, commented: 'The property is well located and has excellent sustainability credentials, while lettings to tenants with strong covenants will deliver long term reliable returns.
'Our Italian AUM has grown significantly in recent years to now over €1 bn with plans to grow further. Logistics is a strategic sector for Patrizia Italy. We have so far invested €400 mln in logistics and have a pipeline of a further €160 mln of logistics transactions which we are completing.'
The property has been built to a high specification with sprinklers, elevations and ample refrigeration space that has a temperature range between 4°C and -28 °C.
Sustainability was a key consideration during its development. The asset includes two photovoltaic plants for a total power capacity of 2.5MW and is targeting a BREEAM rating.
The property is located in Casorate Primo, a municipality in Lombardy between the cities of Milan and Pavia, considered a prime industrial and logistics location in northern Italy.
Rob Brook, head of alternative investments and head of logistics at Patrizia, added: 'Cold chain is an exciting area of logistics for Patrizia to be involved in.
'Demand is predicted to grow steadily in the next few years, especially due to a growing need for reliable supply chains for biopharmaceuticals, vaccines and clinical trials. High demand across Europe combined with low vacancy rates makes cold chain logistics an ideal growth area for the future.'
Since the end of 2019, the AUM of Patrizia’s logistics segment has grown to over €6 bn. The strength of logistics assets is underpinned by strong occupier demand and extremely low vacancy rates across Europe, and its yields have consistently outperformed those by other asset classes in recent years.
As a whole, the logistics segment represents around 45% of the assets that Patrizia manages in Italy, with a total value of nearly €1 bn.
