AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets (“AXA IM – Real Assets”), a global leader in real assets investment and a leading real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, announced that it has agreed to acquire a portfolio of 39 predominantly logistics assets spread across five European countries from Gramercy Property Europe Plc for a total consideration of around €1 billion. The transaction has been made on behalf of a consortium of clients, namely AXA Insurance Companies and AXA CoRE Europe, a pan-European open ended real estate fund. This transaction is in line with AXA IM – Real Assets’ investment strategy led for its clients within which logistics remains an important pillar in response to a growing demand from institutional investors seeking access to medium risk and assets aiming to produce regular income.
The 1.2 million sqm portfolio is fully-let with an attractive average lease length in excess of eight years, with a high proportion of its 27 tenants further demonstrating their commitment to the properties by making significant investments into enhancing their own units. It has been acquired in Grade A condition with an average asset age of just eight years. Predominantly concentrated in Germany, the Netherlands and France, with a c. 10 percent holding in the UK and Poland, all assets within the portfolio benefit from prime locations along major national and international transportation hubs or are in selected locations that are mission critical for their tenants.
The portfolio spans four asset classes, with logistics comprising 86.5 percent of the total, while the balance of the portfolio is spread across retail, car dealership and office assets. Almost half of the high-specification logistics properties are over 50,000 sqm in size and, although they are almost entirely occupied by a high quality sole tenant, offer the flexibility to sub-divide, if required.
This transaction will significantly strengthens AXA IM – Real Assets’ existing pan-European logistics portfolio which is valued at over €880 million across c.1.4 million sqm of assets (as of end of December 2016).
Laurent Jacquemin, European Head of Transactions at AXA IM – Real Assets, commented: “This significant transaction illustrates AXA IM – Real Assets’ commitment to the logistics sector and substantially strengthens our foothold across target European markets which offer attractive opportunities in this space. The potential of the logistics market remains highly compelling as a result of the undersupply of prime stock in Europe coupled with demand for assets continuing to be bolstered by e-commerce, convenience shopping and evolving trends in the supply chain. We look forward to fully integrating this portfolio into our wider logistics platform and aim to generate long-term, stable income flows for our clients.”
