Tag: VGP

VGP Acquires a 15,000-m2 Plot of Land in Cheste

19 November 2019 – The logistics developer VGP has acquired a more than 15,000-m2 plot of land from the Generalitat Valenciana’s Circuito del Motor y Promoción Deportiva (CMPD). The state-owned firm put the asset up for sale in August at an initial price of 2.7 million euros. VGP was the only bidder.

The land is located near the A3 Valencia-Madrid highway and is a part of the Cheste Circuit Business Park sub-division project. The public company currently has no plans to sell its second plot of land in the area, located near to the Ricardo Tormo Circuit. The company has been the only one to present an offer.

Zoned as urban land for commercial or industrial use, the plot of land has an area of ​​15,360.66 square meters and a buildable area of ​​9,984.43 square meters.

Original Story: Valencia Plaza – Begoña Torres

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

VGP Acquires Land for New Logistics Platform in Seville

18 September 2019 – The Belgian developer VGP announced that it had acquired a 100,000-square meter plot of land in Seville, where it the company plans to invest a total of 35 million euros in the development of a logistics complex.

Construction is pending municipal licensing. VGP plans to start building during the latter half of 2020 with completion planned for the end of 2021.

The logistics platform will be located in the town of Dos Hermanas, a booming area to the southeast of Seville. The town is also the site of a planned new logistics platform for Amazon.

Original Story: Eje Prime – Marta Casado Pla

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

VGP Invests €22M in 2 Logistics Platforms in Cheste (Valencia)

15 May 2019 – Levante EMV

The Czech group VGP has announced that it is going to invest €22 million in the construction of two latest-generation logistics platforms on plots spanning 75,000 m2 in Cheste. The logistics platforms will span 15,000 m2 and 26,000 m2, respectively, and the projects are expected to create around 400 new jobs.

The logistics industrial estate in Cheste is enjoying a boom in recent times driven, in particular, by the Lidl logistics platform. It sits within the first logistics ring of Valencia and has direct access to the Manises airport, as well as to the Port of Valencia.

VGP will add these assets in Cheste to the other sites that it is already developing in Spain, including VGP Park San Fernando de Henares, VGP Park Lliçà d’Amunt, VGP Park Fuenlabrada and VGP Park Zaragoza, which together span 360,000 m2.

Original story: Levante EMV (by Ramón Ferrando)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

VGP Buys a 40,000 m2 Logistics Plot in Zaragoza

7 March 2019 – El Vigía

The European supplier of logistics and semi-industrial buildings VGP NV has purchased 40,000 m2 of buildable land in Plaza, in an operation advised by CBRE.

As a result, the logistics specialist now owns 120,000 m2 of space on three adjoining plots in Zaragoza, as its expansion continues following its acquisition of 80,000 m2 in Fuenlabrada (Madrid) and 60,000 m2 in Valencia in 2018.

Original story: El Vigía

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Tritax Purchases Mango’s Logistics Centre from VGP for €150M

26 September 2018 – Expansión

Less than two years is the time that Mango’s logistics platform has been in the hands of the Belgian group VGP. In December 2016, the Brussels-based firm paid €150 million for the logistics complex that Mango had built in Lliçà d’Amunt (Barcelona) and which has a surface area of 250,000 m2 together with some adjoining land on which an additional 100,000 m2 may be built.

According to sources speaking to Expansión, VGP has just sold the asset to the British group Tritax Big Box, a firm listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The buyer of the complex, which Mango inaugurated in the middle of 2016, is a real estate investor specialising in the logistics market. Some of its largest properties include logistics platforms leased to large companies such as Amazon, Unilever, Kuehne+Nagel, L’Oréal, Hachette, Whirlpool, Kellogg’s, Tesco and DHL.

At the end of 2017, Tritax’s portfolio was worth GBP 2.61 billion (€2.92 billion at current exchange rates), 38.1% more than the previous year. Tritax has been advised by the law firm Ashurst in what has been its first operation in the Spanish market. VGP has been advised by the real estate consultancy firm JLL.

Last summer, Tritax raised €300 million through a public offer for sale on the London Stock Exchange. The objective of its managers is to use that money, together with external financing, to acquire logistics properties in Continental Europe.

“Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain and its logistics market is one of the strongest in Europe, with high demand and a limited supply of buildings and land, especially for logistics assets of this kind”, said Nick Preston, manager of Tritax Eurobox, in a statement.

The lease contract for the logistics centre, which has a surface area of 186,138 m2, has a 30-year term, until 2046, although Mango has the option to cancel it in 2036, 2039 and 2042. According to Tritax, the annual rent that Mango pays will allow it to obtain an annual yield of 5%.

Isak Andic decided to build this logistics platform in response to the increase in sales that the fashion chain was experiencing, although that growth has slowed in recent years.

Last year, Mango recorded losses of €33 million, down by 46% compared to 2016, the year in which the company recorded negative results for the first time in its history, with losses of €61 million. In 2017, sales decreased by 2.9%, the same drop as the previous year, and amounted to €2.194 billion.

Divestment

The sale of the logistics centre was the first divestment that Andic made after investing a large proportion of his profits in the real estate sector in previous years. But it was not the last, given that a year later, in December 2017, he sold the chain’s headquarters, located in Palau-solità i Plegamans (Barcelona) to the British group Invesco for €100 million.

Original story: Expansión (by M. Anglés, S. Saiz & R. Casado)

Translation: Carmel Drake

VGP Invests €25M in a New Logistics Park (80,000 m2) in Madrid

25 July 2018 – Eje Prime

VGP is going to build a new logistics park in the south of Madrid. The investment group is going to spend €25 million on the development of a macro-project on a plot of land measuring 80,000 m2 in Fuenlabrada. The buildability of the plot is 50,000 m2, according to reports by the company.

The logistics company has acquired a plot on the Callfersa Industrial Estate to expand the supply in the second ring of Madrid. In Fuenlabrada, there is currently 81,000 m2 of industrial surface area, which is fully occupied. Therefore, VGP’s operation, which has been advised by JLL, will double the stock of logistics land in the town.

VGP’s investment “will provide a solution to the lack of supply in the second ring of Madrid”, explains Pere Morcillo, Director of the Industrial and Logistics Area at JLL, who warns that companies “were finding hardly any available space in the area, especially if you take into account that VGP’s project is the only development that is planned in the area”.

During 2017, 800,253 m2 of logistics space was leased in Madrid; and this year, 850,000 m2 of logistics space is expected to be leased, according to data from CBRE. That firm highlights the areas around the A-2, A-1, A-4 and A-42 motorways as those with the most space to let.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Deloitte: Spain’s Logistics Sector is Hot Property Thanks to the ‘Amazon Effect’

18 May 2018 – Expansión

Investment funds want to take advantage of the collateral effects that the boom in e-commerce is going to have in the real estate market by taking positions in a segment with great potential, namely: the storage of goods and products. The logistics segment has become the “golden girl” of the real estate sector and one of the favourites of investors boosted by strong yields and the expectations of business growth. In this context, Asian investors have placed their focus on the European logistics market.

According to the Logistics Property Handbook compiled by Deloitte, last year, investment in logistics assets in Europe recorded a milestone with €42.5 billion of assets transacted, thanks to mega-operations such as the purchase by China Investment Corporation (CIC) from Blackstone of the Pan-European platform Logicor for €12.2 billion, and the acquisition of the European platform Gazeley by Global Logistic Properties (GLP), headquartered in Singapore, for €2.4 billion.

Mega-operations

In Spain alone, investment in logistics assets amounted to €1.63 billion, which represented a 75% increase compared to the previous year, and a historical record, due to significant transactions involving logistics portfolios. CIC’s purchase of Logicor implied a transaction volume of €652 million in Spain. Meanwhile, P3 Logistic Park – owned by the Singapore sovereign fund, GIC – purchased 11 assets from Green Oak in Spain for €243 million. Those operations boosted investment to historic levels.

Moreover, last year, Mango sold its logistics centre in Palau-Solità I Plegamans (Barcelona) to the fund manager Invesco for €100 million. That transaction was the largest involving a single asset in Spain and the fourth-largest in Europe.

According to the forecasts in the report, operations in the pipeline, which may be closed this year, already amount to €980 million.

“The large institutional funds that aspire to lead the logistics sector in Europe and around the world are bidding hard to accumulate the largest logistics surface area possible during this economic cycle. The location and size of their international logistics platforms are the two key variables for exercising greater negotiation power and whereby obtain the highest rents from operators”, explains Javier García-Matro, Partner in Financial Advisory at Deloitte.

Despite the record investment figure recorded last year, the volume of assets transacted in Spain represents just 4% of the total European market. “This fact is proof of the growth potential of these types of assets in our country. In 2017 alone, 865,000 m2 of logistics space was handed over in Madrid, Cataluña and Valencia. The strong demand of the current cycle is causing logistics promoters to develop more than 2 million m2 of land in these markets, in both turnkey and speculative projects”, says García-Mateo.

One of the major players in the sector is the Socimi Merlin, which has placed logistics asset at the centre of its growth strategy. Merlin’s expansion plan involves the development of land and turnkey construction, a roadmap that has allowed it to become one of the leaders in the sector in just four years.

The main players

Merlin has 2 million m2 of logistics land, both in portfolio and under management, and its plans involve increasing that volume to 3 million m2 before the end of the economic cycle. Specifically, it plans to spend around €250 million on logistics development over the next four years.

Another important player is Logicor, the Pan-European platform, which has been controlled by the Chinese group GIC since last year and which owns 1.2 million m2. Meanwhile, the alliance formed by the real estate manager CBRE GI and its local partner Montepino is going to develop a portfolio of prime assets in the main geographic areas of Spain with a planned investment of around €300 million.

They are joined by the European giants Prologic and the platform P3 Logistic Parks, which own 900,000 m2 and 400,000 m2, respectively, as well as the European investment group VGP, which owns almost 400,000 m2 of logistics space in Spain.

In terms of the types of assets, the Amazon effect has revolutionised the industrial sector and forced logistics operators to reinvent themselves to adapt to the new needs of clients (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

VGP Leases 16,000 m2 Warehouse in San Fernando de Henares to Rhenus

17 January 2018 – Cadena de Suministro

VGP has leased a warehouse measuring almost 16,000 m2 to Rhenus Logistics on its logistics park in the Madrilenian town of San Fernando de Henares, which is owned by the European real estate investment group VGP. The deal has been advised by the real estate consultancy JLL.

The operator will use the facility to provide services to various clients in the retail sector, as well as to other companies in the cold-food distribution segment, which means that VGP will have to adapt the original design of the warehouse to suit to the specific needs of both projects.

VGP’s logistics park is located in Corredor de Henares, a growing area that concentrates a large part of the logistics activity in the centre of the peninsula between Coslada and Guadalajara, and which forms part of the first logistics ring around the city of Madrid.

The park is located just five kilometres away from Barajas Airport, at the intersection between the A-2 motorway, which links Madrid with the city of Barcelona, and the M-50, one of the main ring-roads around Madrid and the outer ring of the capital’s metropolitan crown.

Original story: Cadena de Suministro

Translation: Carmel Drake

Isak Andic Sells Mango Logistics Centre To VGP For €150M

21 December 2016 – Expansión

Isak Andic has decided to re-launch his property company Punta Na and turn it into a real estate firm specialising in flagship stores (iconic shops located on major shopping streets). To this end, Andic has signed a deal to generate cash from the sale of one of his major non-retail real estate assets: the Mango logistics centre, located in the Barcelona town of Lliçà d’Amunt.

This modern logistics complex, measuring 180,000 m2, is where the Catalan textile group stores all of the products from its hanging garment range for distribution to its stores and online. Inaugurated at the beginning of this year, the centre is expected to by fully operational by the beginning of 2017.

Moreover, the acquired property has the potential to be extended by another 80,000 m2 in terms of gross leasable area (GLA). Once it is complete, the Mango building will occupy a surface area of around 260,000 m2, comprising the logistics centre and office space.

Punta Na used to be the owner of this complex, as well as of the adjoining plots of land measuring 150,000 m2, on which VGP could construct 100,000 m2 of gross leasable space for use by other companies.

In total, the Belgian firm (which is headquartered in Brussels) will pay €150 million for the centre and the plots of land, according to a statement made today to the country’s stock market regulator.

Punta Na

Like other large fortunes, the founder of Mango, Isak Andic, has invested some of the profits obtained from the textile group into his real estate business. Through his property company Punta Na, Andic owns properties worth hundreds of millions of euros, including some premises leased to the textile company itself, as well as others leased to competitors, such as the Inditex group, in a similar fashion to Amancio Ortega and his real estate company, Pontegadea.

Until a few months ago, Punta Na did not employ any senior management personnel. Nevertheless, in November, the firm recruited Miquel Roig as its CEO, with the aim of professionalising the management of the company and making it grow.

The company’s plan involves using the funds obtained from the sale of the logistics assets to VGP to expand its portfolio of flagship retail premises, according to sources close to the company.

Last year, Punta Na earned €205,000 compared with €50 million the year before.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake