In Europe’s biggest industrial deal this year, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC took over P3’s pan-European platform for €2.4bn from TPG Real Estate and its partner Ivanhoe Cambridge. GIC announced on Monday that the agreement has already been signed, but it still needs to be approved by antimonopoly authority.
The transaction is the latest in a series of major property acquisitions by the fund, including its $720m merger with Indonesian firm PT Mega Manunggal Property Tbk in October. GIC also acquired a portfolio of more than 7,000 beds in a UK student housing portfolio from Oaktree capital and it teamed up with two investors to acquire 71-percent stake in the U.S. manufactured housing estate developer YES Communities.
“We believe P3’s strong growth will continue, given its diversified, income-producing portfolio and substantial land bank,” said Lee Kok Sun, chief investment officer at GIC Real Estate, said in a statement. “We are confident of the long-term potential of the European logistics sector, and look forward to expanding this attractive platform with the very capable P3 management team.
TPG Real Estate and Ivanhoe Cambridge acquired P3 in 2013. Since then, the platform has roughly doubled in size, which is the sort of pace most private equity investors (like TPG) are looking for.
Asked what would change, now that the company is owned by a fund with longer-term horizons, CEO Ian Worboys said further growth is certainly to be expected. “GIC has bought us in part because of our development potential, with our landbank of 1.4 million sqm,” he told CIJ. “They bought us because we have acquired more than 80 warehouses since TPG bought us, and GIC will want us to grow as well. With what’s probably the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, it will allow us to do many more things going forward.”
