Tag: Logicor

Blackstone Sells Logicor To Chinese Sovereign Fund For €12.5Bn

5 June 2017 – Real Estate Press

Logicor’s Spanish logistics portfolio, which covers more than 1 million m2, has been included in the second largest real estate operation ever to be closed in Europe. The deal has involved the sale of Logicor by Blackstone to the sovereign fund China Investment Corporation CIC, for €12,500 million, according to a statement issued by the US group on Friday.

Logicor, a company created by Blackstone in 2012, owns a portfolio comprising more than 600 high-quality European logistics assets, which have a combined surface area of 13 million m2, located in 17 countries, although more than 70% of the properties are concentrated in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Southern Europe. All of the assets are located in major European economies, along the main transport corridors and very close to major population centres. The portfolio is in an ideal position to benefit from the structural changes in demand that is currently being driven by the rapid growth in on-line trade.

In Spain, the company owns a portfolio covering more than 1.2 million m2, located primarily in Madrid and Barcelona, after having acquired assets from Axa, CBRE GI, SEP Investment, Gran Europa and General Electric, amongst others. Half of the Spanish portfolio is located in the Corredor de Henares. Logicor’s most recent acquisitions in Spain have included two warehouses spanning 70,000 m2 in Torrejón de Ardoz from IDI Gazeley, a purchase that formed part of a larger European operation covering 200,000 m2; and a 82,000 m2 space, which itacquired from Godman, also as part of a larger European operation.

With the sale of Logicor, Blackstone has repeated the move it made with IndCor in the United States in December 2014. On that occasion, the buyer was the Singapore sovereign fund, GIC, which paid $8,500 million for IndCor’s logistics assets, which covered a total logistics surface area of 12 million m2. And it was Blackstone that was the first to predict the effect that logistics spaces would have with the arrival of e-commerce, in addition to its great capacity to raise capital.

Antony Meyers, Director of Real Estate at Blackstone in Europe said: “We have constructed Logicor, through more than 50 acquisitions, to be a leading pan-European logistics company”. “Now, it will have an excellent new owner, with a long-term vision and we have no doubt that it will maintain its strength in a sector that has a very positive outlook”.

CIC fought off competition in the bid for Logicor from Mapletree Investment and Temasek, a joint venture formed by two Singapore state funds, according to a person familiar with the bid process, as well as Global Logistics Properties, a company controlled by the Singapore sovereign fund, GIC.

Logistics spaces are going to have enormous value for e-commerce companies, such as Amazon. Logicor has focused on the growth of its business in Western Europe, where on-line shopping is less developed than in the United Kingdom. The agreement is expected to be closed before the end of the year.

Original story: Real Estate Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Amazon Revolutionises The Logistics Sector

9 February 2017 – Expansión

The boom in e-commerce and the arrival of the large distribution giants, like Amazon, have caused a genuine tsunami in the real estate market and in the way we understand logistics. Logistics assets – which were, until recently, the ugly duckling of the sector – have really blossomed and now represent one of the investment segments with most potential, given their risk-return relationship, according to the experts.

Operators are increasingly looking for more large logistics warehouses on the outskirts of cities, which they combine with distribution centres situated on ring-roads to make deliveries on time and on budget.

“The effect is a reflection of new consumer habits and online purchases, as well as of consumer expectations, which require products to arrive on time and to be easily returnable (inverse logistics)”, explains Antonio Montero, Director of the Industrial-Logistics business at Aguirre Newman.

Alberto Larrazábal, National Director of Industrial and Logistics at CBRE, said that there has been an increase in the e-commerce market. “Operators are increasingly demanding more logistics and distribution space. In Madrid and Barcelona, 400,000 m2 and 700,000 m2 of space was leased, respectively, in 2016 and e-commerce accounted for 25% of those amounts.

Javier García-Mateos, Partner in Financial Advisory at Deloitte said that “retailers are starting to use their own establishments in cities as logistics and distribution points for e-commerce”.

García-Mateos also said that there is greater demand for the development of cross-docking warehouses (which reduce the time needed for logistics operations and which can be adapted to the needs of e-commerce) in the vicinity of the main urban nuclei. (…).

“Logistics spaces are moving increasingly closer to cities, there are even warehouses inside city centres. These are points where companies can serve their customers in the fastest and most effective way”, said Luis Guardia, Director of the Logistics and Industrial Area at JLL.

Guardia also explained that the major department stores are also committed to opening “regional hubs” to get closer to the major urban nuclei.

Development activity

In terms of investment, Larrazábal considers that the logistics and industrial sectors are becoming more fashionable by the day. “Large funds and private investors will end up acquiring these assets”, he said.

Over the last three years, investment volumes have grown considerably, to reach more than €800 million last year.

One example of this investor appetite is Merlin’s purchase of Saba Parques Logísticos – the company that groups together Saba’s stakes in five parks – for €115 million.

“The logistics market is interesting as it allows the Socimis to diversify and add new assets to their portfolio that generate returns not afforded by the other assets at the moment”, said García-Mateos. Other operators that are committed to this market include Logicor (Blackstone), Zaphir, Prologis, Rockspring, GreenOak and the joint venture between Colony and Neinver.

In the same way, experts indicate that development activity has resumed. “Developers and investors know that there is latent demand in high quality logistics assets and this is encouraging them to buy land and build assets”, said Montero

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Buys H&M & Carrefour’s Logistics Centres In Madrid

16 November 2016 – Expansión

The US fund Blackstone has become one of the largest owners of logistics assets in Spain and Europe. The investment fund has acquired two warehouses in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid) from the US property developer IDI Gazeley. The acquired assets have a combined surface area of 70,140 m2,

As a result of this operation, Blackstone has become the owner of a 23,500 m2 logistics centre that Carrefour inaugurated last year, as well as of a large logistics platform that H&M operates in Torrejón, which supplies all of its stores in Spain and Portugal. H&M signed a 24-year rental agreement for the centre in 2012, of which 15 years are mandatory. The centre has a surface area of more than 36,000 m2.

According to sources in the market, this batch of assets is worth around €30 million. The transaction forms part of a broader operation, which includes six warehouses with a surface area of more than 200,000 m2 across Spain and Italy.

These acquisitions will serve to strengthen Blackstone’s portfolio in Spain, where it already owns a portfolio containing thousands of homes, several office buildings and more than one million square metres of logistics space, controlled through its subsidiary Logicor.

Blackstone’s strategy is at odds with the approach being adopted by IDI, which is controlled by the real estate giant Brookfield Property and which is one of the largest owners of logistics assets in the world. It arrived in Spain in 2014 and is now unwinding its positions after it failed to achieve the results it had hoped for.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

DIA & Blackstone Close Largest Industrial RE Transaction Since 2013

11 March 2015 – ABC

The two companies have signed a contract for the rental of logistics buildings covering 30,000 square metres.

Logicor, the logistics platform owned by Blackstone, has signed a long-term rental agreement with the supermarket chain DIA for 30,000 square metres of space, which makes it the largest lease transaction in the industrial sector since 2013.

The rental contract covers a substantial part of a 37,000 m2 warehouse in the Miralcampo Logistics Park (in Corredor de Henares), a building that was acquired by Logicor at the beginning of 2014, according to JLL, the real estate consultant that has advised this transaction.

Logicor is the largest owner of logistics warehouses in the Iberian Peninsula, with a portfolio of 960,077m2. According to Logicor’s director general for Southern Europe, the positive changes in the real estate investment market in Spain are starting to be reflected in occupancy rates in the logistics sector.

That, combined with the limited availability of large, modern logistics warehouses in Madrid, has meant that tenants are under more pressure to hire the highest quality products, he added.

The CEO and Chairman of Logical, Mo Barzegar, highlighted that this transaction reflects the company’s investment strategy to purchase functional warehouses, close to urban areas, that are attractive to clients. JLL España advised Logicor in this transaction.

Original story: ABC

Translation: Carmel Drake