Tag: P3

Funds, Socimis, El Corte Inglés & Seur Compete in the Urban Logistics Segment

9 March 2019 – Expansión

Investors and logistics operators alike are setting their sights on urban hubs to benefit from the boom in e-commerce. According to data from CBRE, investment in the logistics sector is thriving – it amounted to €2 billion in 2017, €1.5 billion in 2018 and is forecast to reach €1.2 billion in 2019. Active players in the sector include the Singapore sovereign fund through its Socimi P3, Blackstone, Prologis, Logicor, CBRE GI and Montepino, and Merlin, amongst others.

Urban hubs are gaining significant weight in the sector thanks to their ability to reduce transport costs, avoid the new traffic restrictions and resolve the problem of product returns.

According to the CNMC, Correos and Correos Express currently deliver 44% of all packages in Spain, followed by MRW and Seur (14% each) and DHL (4.5%).

In terms of retailers operating in this space, Amazon set the ball rolling by opening a logistics centre in the heart of the Eixample district of Barcelona and in the Méndez Álvaro area of Madrid. Other large retailers are following suit by opening distribution centres inside major cities, such as Decathlon, MediaMarkt, Ikea, Aki, Carrefour and Worten.

The investment firm Azora has also announced its intention to invest €250 million in logistics hubs in urban centres, which it will lease to delivery specialists such as Seur, DHL and MRW. Seur already has eleven urban logistics centres and plans to open another nine this year. Meanwhile, DHL already has ten such hubs and plans to open two more this year.

In the same vein, the department store giant El Corte Inglés has also launched an ambitious omnichannel logistics strategy, which will convert its 94 shopping centres into storage points for the management of online purchases.

Original story: Expansión (by I. de las Heras & R. Arroyo)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

P3, Airbus’s New Landlord, is Preparing its Reign in Spain’s Logistics Market

10 October 2018

The socimi, which acquired GreenOak’s logistics portfolio in the country in 2017, plans to strengthen its presence in the short term in cities such as Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Zaragoza and Valencia.

P3 Logistic Parks is looking to take first place in Spain’s logistics market. The group, owned by the sovereign fund Singapore GIC Private Limited, is continuing to follow its previously disclosed growth strategy in the country and has set as one of its short-term objectives the goal to increase its presence in the Mediterranean corridor and the Central corridor, as the company explained to EjePrime.

The socimi, which started trading on the Alternative Stock Market (MAB) last December, wants to position itself as “real estate developer and real estate investor in Spain,” a market in which it has been present since 2015. To do this, the company considers it essential to acquire new logistics assets in Barcelona, ​​Málaga, Valencia, Madrid and Zaragoza.

One of P3 Logistic Parks’s most recent operations in the country was carried out near the Spanish capital, in Toledo. The company finalised an agreement yesterday with Airbus to develop a new 31,000-square-meter logistics platform in the municipality of Illescas, as EjePrime reported. The socimi plans to begin work on construction by the end of the year so that the aerospace company can move into its new facilities in the third quarter of 2019.

P3’s largest operation in Spain, however, occurred in April 2017, when it took over GreenOak’s logistics portfolio. The company acquired a set of eleven industrial warehouses spread out over different localities from the North American fund. Through the operation, the socimi added more than 400,000 square meters to its portfolio, which currently consists of a total of eighteen logistics assets.

” P3’s strategy in Spain is based on a long-term vision, since we have numerous assets in the logistics field, in consolidated locations and areas of great interest,” the company stated. The group is following the same trajectory in the rest of the European countries in which it is present: the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

The company has more than 185 warehouses and logistics parks (totalling 4.2 million square meters), a land bank of more than 1.8 million square meters and a portfolio of 400 customers in Europe. Among the tenants of P3, apart from Airbus, there are companies such as Lamborghini, Ducati, British American Tobacco, Antalis and BSH Electrodomésticos.

Currently, Spain accounts for about 12% of the company’s total business. One of the challenges pursued by the company is to improve its presence “in the Central corridor, especially in key areas such as Madrid and Zaragoza, where there is less supply of available space, but where demand continues to be high.”

P3 Logistic Parks belongs to the P3 Group, the European parent company that controls the acquisition, lease and sale of logistics properties throughout the continent. The Spanish company, with headquarters in Madrid, was created on May 5, 2017, under the name of Chadwicks with capital from TMF Participation Corporation and TMF Participations Holdings. Today, the sovereign fund of Singapore GIC Private Limited holds the majority stake of the company.

Original Story: EjePrime – Berta Seijo

Translation: Richard Turner

Logistics: Real Estate’s Ugly Duckling Sees its Investment Figures Soar

30 September 2018 – El Confidencial

It has always been the ugly duckling of the real estate sector. Nevertheless, the boom in e-commerce, the positive evolution of consumption and of the economy, in general, and real estate in particular, has triggered investment in these types of assets. For more than a year now, the sector has been starring in some of the most high-profile operations in the market, both at the corporate level, as well as in terms of the sale of portfolios and assets, attracting money from large international funds, as well as from domestic ones.

The data speaks for itself. Investment in logistics during the third quarter of 2018 – including plots of land – amounted to €450 million, equivalent to four times more than during the second quarter and 436% more than the figure registered during the same period a year earlier. That is according to data from the consultancy firm JLL, which shows that investment amounted to €872 million between January and September, 53% more the volume accumulated during the same period in 2017.

Moreover, the firm’s forecasts for the final stretch of the year for this sector are optimistic. “We expect the total volume to amount to €1.2 billion by the end of the year, 20% more than we expected last quarter, due to the good results and the fact that strong investor appetite is still alive”, said Borja Ortega, Director of Capital Markets at JLL.

“The logistics market is the absolute star of the real estate investment market in Spain. Investors see the potential associated with a market that has been growing for years”, says Ortega. Why? Its own fundamentals, the lack of product for investing in other segments such as offices and retail or the creation and consolidation of investors specialising in logistics”, he said.

In the last year and a half, the logistics sector has captured the media’s attention thanks to the completion of several very high profile operations. For example, on 25 September, Mango’s logistics platform in Barcelona was sold for €150 million. That asset, with a surface area of 181,000 m2 and owned by the Belgian investor group VG Partners since the end of 2016, was sold to the British Socimi Tritax Big Box.

It represented the largest investment in a single asset in the Spanish logistics market for the last four years since Logicor purchased some logistics facilities in Guadalajara spanning more than 320,000 m2 from Gran Europa for €133 million.

The operation also exceeded the €119 million that Blackstone paid in July to acquire the Socimi Lar’s logistics portfolio. In total, that deal involved 162,000 m2 of space spread over four logistics warehouses in Alovera (Guadalajara), one in the Juan Carlos I industrial estate of Almussafes (Valencia) and a plot for logistics development in Cheste (Valencia) spanning a further 182,000 m2.

Assets, portfolios, corporate operations

During the third quarter, there was a lot of movement in the sector such as the sale of two logistics portfolios – Hina Project with 6 warehouses and Gran Europa Portfolio with 3 warehouses – four purchases of logistics warehouses and a project comprising two plots in Cabanillas. Those transactions were accompanied by the purchase of two plots, one on the Centro —Ciudad del Transporte Industrial Estate in Guadalajara – and another in San Fernando de Henares. The latter was acquired by Merlin Properties for the construction of a logistics platform measuring 100,000 m2 (…).

All of these operations are happening in the midst of a genuine boom in e-commerce and online sales, a market in which the major online operators such as Amazon, Mercadona and Inditex have committed heavily. And for good reason, given that in 2017 alone, online sales moved more than €30 billion, according to data from the Spanish National Competition and Markets Commission (CNMC). And that figure is rising.

But the appetite of buyers is not only limited to the purchase of assets. At the corporate level, there have also been some significant transactions in recent months. A year ago, China Investment Corporation (CIC) completed the purchase of Logicor for €12.25 billion, one of the largest logistics companies in Europe and the largest owner of logistics assets in the Spanish market with a portfolio spanning more than 1 million m2 located primarily in Madrid and Barcelona. That operation became the second largest real estate purchase in history and the fourth largest by a Chinese company in Europe.

Meanwhile, P3 Spain Logistic Park, the logistics centre Socimi that the sovereign fund Singapore GIC owns in Spain, made its debut on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) last year with eleven logistics centres that span a total surface area of 321,392 m2 and which are spread across five autonomous communities, although most are in Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha.

Even the Murcian businessman, Trinitario Casanova, through Grupo Baraka has backed the logistics sector. In February this year, he purchased a logistics-industrial use plot located in the municipality of Sant Esteve Sesrovires, in Barcelona.

A sector traditionally forgotten

“For years, the logistics sector has been one of the ‘great forgottens’ of the real estate sector. Nevertheless, today it is clearly a segment to which investors pay a lot of attention. (…). In fact, given the competitive pressure, it is the only sector where returns are continuing to fall. Prime returns at the end of the third quarter of 2018 amounted to 5.25%, making them lower than during the last upward cycle in 2006, when they amounted to 5.75%”, said Ortega.

On the other hand, unlike what has happened in other real estate sectors such as residential or offices, whose activity is concentrated in the major cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, 34% of logistics investment in the third quarter has been in Cataluña and 32% in Madrid. The rest has been concentrated in other regions such as Valencia (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Offers €90M+ for Lar España’s Logistics Portfolio

14 June 2018 – Eje Prime

Blackstone is expanding its appetite for Spanish real estate. The US fund, which is in the middle of a takeover bid for Hispania’s hotels, is now attacking the industrial real estate market and is finalising the purchase of Lar’s logistics portfolio. The firm could pay more than €90 million for the six assets owned by the listed Socimi.

Lar’s portfolio, which includes one plot of land, a precious commodity in the sector’s current climate, is worth €92 million, according to the most recent appraisal, performed at the end of 2017. The capital appreciation that the Socimi has managed to generate amounts to 40%, according to Expansión.

The operation, in which Blackstone has emerged as the only finalist and which, therefore, is holding exclusive negotiations with the Spanish group, forms part of Lar España’s new strategic plan to divest its position in the logistics market. It is the intention of both parties to sign the sale and purchase contract before the summer.

Lar’s six assets span a combined gross leasable area (GLA) of 169,800 m2 and, since they came onto the market, have attracted interest from large investment funds and international logistics operators. The list of potential suitors has included, in addition to Blackstone, CBRE Global Investors, P3 and Ares Management.

Through this purchase, the US fund is seeking to strengthen its logistics portfolio in Spain. In January, the company paid €90 million for four complexes leased to the supermarket chain Dia. In 2017, the sector set a new historical record with total investment in Spain of €1.5 billion, up by 85% compared to the previous year, according to data from the consultancy firm Savills Aguirre Newman.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Savills Aguirre Newman: Inv’t in Logistics Assets Exceeded €1.5bn in 2017

15 February 2018 – Expansión

Real estate investment in logistics assets exceeded €1.5 billion in 2017, up by 86% compared to the previous year. That figure includes the corporate operation involving Logicor.

The boom in e-commerce, combined with their attractive returns, have placed logistics assets in the spotlight for real estate investors. In this way, last year, the purchase of these types of properties reached a record-breaking €1.5 billion, according to the consultancy firm Savills Aguirre Newman.

That disbursement represents an increase of 86% compared to the previous year and is the highest figure ever recorded for these types of properties in the Spanish market. Nevertheless, the amount does include the corporate operation carried out by Blackstone. The US fund divested its logistics subsidiary, owner of 147 million m2 of space across 17 countries (including in Spain) to China Investment for €12.25 billion.

In the last three months of the year alone, investment in these types of assets exceeded €200 million.

Unlike other types of properties, such as offices, interest in these assets extends beyond Madrid and Barcelona. “The consolidation of economic growth and the gradual improvement in the fundamentals of the logistics market (demand, availability and rental prices) has continued to drive investment in the sector, which, due to the shortage of supply in Madrid and Barcelona, has shifted its interest to secondary markets, such as Zaragoza and Valencia”, say sources at the consultancy firm.

The large operations of the year included P3’s purchase of GreenOak’s portfolio for €243 million.

In fact, the high degree of interest has caused many investors to back the purchase of plots of logistics land for their subsequent development. “Operations involving logistics land, for the development of turnkey and at-risk projects, have become one of the cornerstones of the market. The high demand for space, combined with the shortage of finished products suitable for the requirements of specific demand, is generating a lot of interest in this product”, explain sources at Savills Aguirre Newman.

The boom in operations has already had an impact on the returns offered by these types of properties. “The initial rate of return for the most prime assets was below 6%, but during the course of the year, for some specific operations, the rate amounted to 5.5%, which means that the gentle upwards trend already observed in previous years is being maintained”.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Socimi P3 Spain Logistics Parks Will Invest €200M in 2018

12 January 2018 – Expansión

The Socimi P3 Spain Logistics Parks, which specialises in the logistics sector and which is controlled by GIC, the Singapore sovereign fund, is planning to invest around €200 million in Spain in 2018 on the purchase of assets and land, as well as on property development.

Of the total amount, €60 million will be spent on the acquisition of land, explained the Director General of the Socimi, David Marquina, yesterday. In addition to strengthening its presence along the Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona corridor, the objective of the firm is to grow along the Mediterranean Corridor, where it aims to reach as far as Málaga and Sevilla.

As part of its strategy, in December, P3 Spain Logistics Parks purchased a warehouse measuring 6,000 m2 in Valencia, which it will extend by another 6,000 m2, so that the frozen food logistics company Montfrisa can establish a hub there.

During the same month, it completed the 3,684 m2 extension of the logistics supply centre that the company owns in Getafe (Madrid), which now spans almost 20,000 m2.

Marquina considers that in 2018 investment will grow by more in Madrid than in Barcelona, due to the political uncertainty (in Cataluña) and the lack of available land in that area. Other cities, such as Valencia, will also benefit from this displacement in investor interest.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Knight Frank: Inv’t in Logistics Will Amount to €1.2bn in 2017

4 December 2017 – Eje Prime

The Spanish logistics sector is on the right track as the industry approaches the centres of the country’s largest cities. The new methods of consumption, which demand greater speed when it comes to receiving a product and the increase in the volume of online purchases, has led to a rise in the leasing of logistics land in Spain, in particular in the regional capitals. During the nine months to September, investment in the market amounted to €550 million and that figure is forecast to reach €1.2 billion before the end of the year.

Spain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is growing at a rate of 3% p.a., and the index is not escaping the gaze of international investors, who are placing their trust in the country. This has been demonstrated by the largest logistics operation recorded so far this year involving P3 Logistics Parks, the developer controlled by the sovereign fund of Singapur GIC, which paid €243 million for GreenOak’s logistics portfolio in April, according to a report from the consultancy firm Knight Frank.

In addition to Madrid and Barcelona, several other large regional capitals have benefitted from the investments made in the purchase of industrial land on the outskirts of cities. Such is the case of Valencia, in the adjoining town of Ribarroja, where the largest operation was signed during the third quarter of the year. There, TH Real Estate acquired a Carrefour logistics platform measuring 55,000 m2, on a plot with a surface area spanning 87,000 m2.

Focusing on the Community of Madrid, the report points out that the absorption of logistics space has soared this year. The figures for the third quarter of the year, when 675,000 m2 of space was leased, exceed the surface area recorded during the whole of 2016 in the Spanish region. The international consultancy firm forecasts that Madrid will close the year with absorbed logistics surface area of around 800,000 m2.

The large deals notably drove the increase in the surface area leased in the country. Seven of the transactions signed in the sector during 2017 involved assets spanning more than 40,000 m2.

Prime yields, on the rise in Madrid and Barcelona 

In a survey of international investors conducted by Knight Frank, 51% of those questioned chose industrial and logistics assets as their preferred asset type for investment over the next five years. This investor appetite has led to an increase in the price of Spanish industrial land. Prices in the logistics market are on the rise, although yields are remaining stable.

In the market for logistics assets in Madrid, prime rents amount to around €5.25/m2. The forecasts indicate that the increase in demand and the improvement in the quality of new logistics facilities will lead to an average annual increase in rental prices in the region of around 3%.

Meanwhile, in Barcelona, the price of prime logistics land is even more expensive at around €6.85/m2. If we look at a map of Europe, the Catalan capital is the seventh most expensive city, and the most expensive, by far, in the south of the continent. In this sense, Barcelona, where land is already more expensive than it is in Frankfurt (€6.65/m2), is only exceeded by Amsterdam (€7.10/m2), Munich (€7.10/m2), Dublin (€8.15/m2), Helsinki (€10/m2), Geneva (€14.55) and London (€15.25/m2).

Original story: Eje Prime (by Jabier Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Singapore GIC To Expand Its Logistics Portfolio In Spain & Portugal

19 May 2017 – Expansion

P3, the company specialising in the ownership, development and management of logistics assets, wants to take advantage of the support being offered by its new owner, the sovereign fund Singapore GIC, to lead the logistics market in Spain and establish itself as one of the country’s leading developers and investors in this segment.

The company, which operates under the commercial name P3 Logistics Parks, currently owns a portfolio of assets covering 400,000 m2 in Spain, after it purchased eleven logistics warehouses in April. P3 is planning to finish the year with 500,000 m2 under management, according to the CEO of the company in Spain, David Marquina.

“We want to become one of the main suppliers of logistics space over the next three years. Specialisation and a long-term outlook are our mantras”, he said.

To this end, P3 has just opened an office in Madrid and has a team there analysing opportunities. The group specialises in closing off-market operations.

The firm wants to strengthen its two business lines in the country: investment in rental assets and the construction of turnkey projects for clients. “We are analysing both the purchase of companies that own logistics assets, as well as the acquisition of portfolios and individual properties to grow in size”.

Similarly, as part of its expansion plan, P3 is considering expanding its operations into Portugal. The company, which was created in 2002 in Prague and which quickly began its expansion into central and Western Europe, owns a portfolio containing 170 logistics warehouses and parks in 11 countries across Europe, spanning a total surface area of 3.5 million m2 and with a land bank covering more than 1.8 million m2 for development.

“Germany, France and other countries where we have had a more limited exposure until now, such as Italy and Spain, are strategic markets for the group”.

In Spain, P3 has a presence in the central logistics corridor, which connects Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona, and it wants to strengthen its presence in the Mediterranean corridor.

The director highlights that 98% of its assets are leased through rental contracts that have an average term of 6.2 years.

For Marquina, the economic recovery and political stability have allowed investors to be interested in Spain, which is firmly back on the investment map. “After the crisis, real estate and logistics development was left paralysed. The stock became obsolete and out-dated. Over the last four years, liquidity has increased in the market and there has been a compression in yields, but there is still a long way to go”, he said.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

P3 Acquires 11 Logistics Assets From Gore Spain For €243M

10 April 2017 – P3 Press Release

Pan-European logistics property investor-developer P3 has started its latest phase of expansion with the acquisition of a 322,500 m2 portfolio of 11 logistics and distribution warehouses in Spain from Gore Spain Holdings SOCIMI I, S.A.U. The purchase price was agreed at €243.35 million.

The portfolio includes assets in key strategic logistics locations around Madrid, Zaragoza, Toledo and Guadalajara as well as the coastal cities of Valencia in the east and Biscay (near Bilbao) in the north.

The purchase, which comes shortly after P3 announced a record performance across Europe in 2016, takes P3’s asset base in Spain from just over 70,000 m2 to nearly 400,000 m2 and is one of the largest portfolio transactions in Spain in recent years.

David Marquina, P3’s Managing Director in Spain, said: “This is a good opportunity to reinforce our footprint in Spain’s central logistics corridor, which connects Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona. Our next target is to increase our presence in the Mediterranean corridor, around Barcelona & Valencia and expand to Málaga. We will be focusing on acquiring institutional-quality logistics assets and off-market deals, where P3’s long-term investor-developer approach can make a real difference.

“There are several Build-to-Suit projects and single asset acquisitions in the pipeline, which will allow us to grow to 500,000 m2 of high quality, well-located logistics space under management in Spain before year end.”

The properties range in size from just over 7,500 m² in the Getafe area of Madrid to over 80,000 m² in Zaragoza. They are all fully let to blue chip domestic and international companies including DHL, which is also a P3 customer on seven other parks in four countries, Orangina Schweppes Espana and the office products retailer Staples.

In addition to the built assets, two of the warehouses have adjacent land totalling over 26,000 m², with potential for P3 to develop.

Commenting on the purchase, P3 CEO Ian Worboys said: “The Spanish economy is expanding and we identified the country as a key target for P3 in 2017. We’re delighted to have been able to acquire this portfolio which makes us one of the leading players in Spain and is in line with our growth strategy across Europe as a leading property investor-developer.”

P3 was advised on the purchase by CBRE, legal consulting was provided by Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF).

Original story: P3 Press Release

Edited by: Carmel Drake