GreenOak Puts All Of Its Logistics Assets Up For Sale

29 November 2016 – El Confidencial

Early in the summer of 2015, the opportunistic fund GreenOak surprised the market by announcing its unbridled appetite for the Spanish logistics market. In June of that year, the vehicle funded and managed by John Carrafiell announced that it had just purchased five logistics assets in the Community of Madrid, with a combined surface area of 200,000 m2, and that it had agreed to acquire another 100,000 m2.

Over the next few months, the fund completed a barrage of operations, involving the acquisition of, amongst others: a 14,000 m2 platform, which became the largest logistics operation in the País Vasco in 2015; a 30,000 m2 asset in Toledo, leased to Schwepees; the Michelin logistics platform in Seseña, which has a surface area of 47,000 m2; and a portfolio covering 144,320 m2 spread across several properties in Zaragoza and Massalvés (Valencia), which it purchased from Prologis.

Thus, in just 12 months, GreenOak fulfilled its objective of acquiring a portfolio covering 500,000 m2, but rather than develop it, the US fund has now decided to put it up for sale, and whereby take advantage of the strong appetite from institutional investors and specialists in the sector. According to several sources familiar with the sale, the fund has opened a formal sales process, whose first key milestone was recorded last week, with the presentation of preliminary offers from interested parties.

The US firm Eastdil Secured, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo, is coordinating the process, according to the same sources, who point out that this advisor was also chosen by the Canadian fund Ivanhoe to coordinate the sales process of Xanadú, one of the largest shopping centres in Spain, which was sold for around €500 million.

GreenOak’s decision to divest its entire logistics portfolio is seen in the market as an operation by an opportunistic fund, which knew how to buy cheaply and which has decided to take advantage of the interest from more stable investors to generate rapid capital gains. The consideration for the operation is expected to exceed €200 million, compared with the figure of around €125 million that GreenOak has invested to build the portfolio.

Opportunistic buyer

GreenOak signed its first major property purchase in Spain in 2014, when it acquired seven shopping centres from the Dutch group Vastned Retail for €160 million. (…).

It then went onto buy the building located at number 77 on Calle Fuencarral, which it acquired from the General Social Security Treasrury for €21 million; followed by the Sevilla Factory shopping centre, which it bought for €12 million; an office building in Port Cornellá (Barcelona), which it purchased for €10.1 million; and four buildings in the Avalon Business Park (Madrid) and another one in Arroyo de la Vega (Alcobendas), on which it spent more than €55 million in total, according to the figures disclosed in the annual accounts of Gore Spain, the Socimi through which the fund channels its investments in our country.

The icing on the cake for GreenOak came in June this year, when it acquired the Las Mercedes Business Park from Standard Life. The property is located on the outskirts of Madrid, next to the A-2 motorway and comprises an 80,000 m2 complex with 10 buildings, of which nine are used for offices, with the tenth used for the provision of general services.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aguirre Newman: Logistics Inv’t Reached €135M In Q1 2016

11 May 2016 – Mis Naves

Investment in the logistics market during the first quarter of 2016 amounted to €135 million, compared with €180 million in the same period in 2015, according to the Q1 Monitor Report about the Logistics Market in Madrid and Barcelona published by Aguirre Newman.

The leasing of logistics space in Madrid and Barcelona reached 233,176 sqm, thanks to 21 operations, with a maximum rent of €5.5/m2/month during the quarter.

Madrid

In Madrid, demand for logistics spaces exceeded 144,672 sqm, which more than doubled the space leased during the first quarter of 2015 (64,500 sqm).

The most significant operation during the quarter involved Amazon’s extension of its facilities in San Fernando de Henares (57,400 sqm) and its lease of 48,500 sqm of space in Cabanillas del Campo.

In terms of rental income, the maximum recorded during the quarter was €5.5/m2/month, in a deal at the PAL in Coslada. Besides that one-off operation, rental income in prime areas remained stable, at around €4.5-€5.0/m2/month.

One of the most significant findings from Aguirre Newman’s report relates to the market for the sale of land allocated for industrial/logistics use, a clear indicator of the return of property development activity: more than half a million sqm of land was sold during the quarter, for both end clients as well as to construct new projects at risk.

Barcelona

Meanwhile, the leasing of logistics spaces during the first quarter in Barcelona exceeded 89,004 m2, which represented a decrease of 56.4% with respect to the same period in 2015 and an improvement of 71.3% compared with the previous quarter.

The analysis of the number of operations signed shows a very positive trend in terms of demand, as 12 deals were completed during the first three months of the year compared with eight signed in the previous quarter.

Aguirre Newman’s report highlights that the logistics investment market in Barcelona and its area of influence is still very attractive for investors. Moreover, despite the scarcity of quality profitable products available, several operations are currently in progress, which will contribute to an improvement in investment volumes over the next few months.

Original story: Mis Naves

Translation: Carmel Drake

Barcelona Drives Recovery In Spain’s Logistics Sector

4 February 2016 – Expansión

The logistics market is closely linked to the recovery in overall consumption. Last year, logistics warehouses with a surface area of almost one million m2 were leased, up by 37% compared with the previous year. This increase was primarily driven by the market in Barcelona, where companies anticipate a future supply shortage. There, the historical record for new warehouse leases was broken, with 564,000 m2 leased in total, representing an increase of almost 80% compared with 2014, according to figures from JLL.

In Cataluña, the automotive and fashion sectors have continued to feature in the largest operations, although the increase in ecommerce is also driving the sector, and warehouses leased exclusively for the distribution of products sold by companies online accounted for 10% of the total.

Some of the largest operations of the year in Cataluña included: one involving Decathlon, which leased a 40,000 m2 warehouse; another involving Kellogs, which leased 26,200 m2 of space; plus two warehouses owned by logistics operators, measuring 21,000 m2 and 18,500 m2, respectively, which are going to be used exclusively for the online sales of Inditex and Mango.

Moreover, a pre-agreement for the future logistics centre that Amazon plans to open in Cataluña, which will have a surface area of 210,000 m2, was signed in January, which means it will be accounted for in 2016, a year in which the trend (recovery) that began last year is expected to be maintained.

In Madrid, operations were recorded involving a total surface area of 383,000 m2 last year, up by just 2% compared with the previous year, but expectations there are high for 2016, thanks to the projects that are underway and due to be completed this year, including the one in Cabanillas del Campo and another two large warehouses in the Getafe area. (…).

Despite the shortage of large warehouses and the fact that vacancies are decreasing, rents have not yet started to recover, with the exception of in some of the large cities, where the increase has been minimal. Nevertheless, the consultancy firms predict rises in 2016. (…).

The Director of Logistics and Industry at CBRE  in Spain, Alberto Larrazábal, said that, last year “Barcelona exceeded Madrid because it has a pharmaceutical and textile base that the Spanish capital lacks”. Nevertheless, he expects this trend will be reversed in 2016, because “there is no availability in terms of land or finished warehouses in the Catalan capital’s area of influence”.

Investment market

In terms of investment, 2015 was also a positive year: investors spent €734 million, compared with €586 million in 2014. The main players were the Socimis and overseas funds, and their interest resulted in the compression of yields from 8% two years ago to their current level of 6.5%. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake