Europa Capital, the pan-European real estate investment manager, has announced a German logistics joint venture with the Cromwell Property Group on behalf of its latest value-add fund with a target gross asset value of EUR 150 million.
The joint venture focuses on logistics properties and portfolios across Germany with individual lot sizes from € 8 million, in which Europa Capital and Cromwell create added value by pooling their active asset management expertise. The JV recently made its first investment with the acquisition of a 12,000 sqm logistics property near Cologne and is currently carrying out the due diligence for further investments in the course of building a strong pipeline.
The joint venture builds on Europa Capital’s track record in building similar platforms across Europe, including the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, to capitalize on demand for warehouse and logistics space where supply is due to high demand and the limited availability of land is scarce.
Jason Oram, Partner, Fund Manager at Europa Capital, said, “We have seen a significant increase in demand for light industrial and logistics properties from institutional investors. Real estate allocations have started to shift from sectors negatively impacted by the ongoing structural changes in the industry and the COVID-19 pandemic to logistics, where we can capitalize on our track record. The sector has demonstrated its resilience during the pandemic, as evidenced by the high rental income rates across our portfolio, and we firmly believe that rents for well-located properties in this sector will increase over the course of our holding period in this project.”
James Farmer, Partner, Origination & Acquisitions at Europa Capital, added, “The strong demand for commercial space is being driven by a growing need for distribution space, which is driving rents and creating favorable conditions for us to reduce existing vacancies and over valuations Continental Europe is lagging the US and UK in terms of e-commerce penetration and we believe this will be a major driver of logistics performance in countries like Germany will be. We look forward to working with Cromwell’s local team in Germany to find the right investment opportunities in building a strategic portfolio for our investors.”
Michael Bohde, Germany boss of the Cromwell Property Group, commented, “We are very excited about the partnership with Europa Capital to build an attractive and marketable portfolio of assets over a period of four to five years. As the largest light industrial and logistics market in Europe, Germany offers investors a stable macroeconomic environment, returns and established international brands.”
