Industrial property developer ProLogis said it plans to launch a $5bn (EUR 3.7 bn) European private equity fund. The fund, which will be launched before the end of the year, will seek to raise equity against a $5 bn portfolio of properties owned or under development by ProLogis’s European arm, ProLogis European Properties (PEP) over the next four to five years.
Industrial property developer ProLogis said it plans to launch a $5bn (EUR 3.7 bn) European private equity fund. The fund, which will be launched before the end of the year, will seek to raise equity against a $5 bn portfolio of properties owned or under development by ProLogis’s European arm, ProLogis European Properties (PEP) over the next four to five years.
PEP would own a 30% stake in the fund, with its US parent company holding a 20% stake, and further equity raised from private institutions such as pension funds. ‘There are a lot of institutional investors who want to have a stake in large industrial schemes,’ PEP ceo Robert Watson said. ‘This will give them access to $5 bn of stable product.’
Separately, Prologis reported earnings adjusted to exclude one-off gains or losses of EUR 81.6m for the first half of 2007, an 11.1% increase on the same period last year. The value of company’s portfolio increased by 7% to EUR 4.5bn, driven by EUR 220m of acquisitions and a EUR 50m revaluation gain. Watson said that he expected earnings to continue to grow at a similar level, but added that future growth would be driven by rental growth rather than yield compression.
