Le mie ricette per la real estate communityBarings, one of the world’s largest diversified real estate investment managers, announces the acquisition of three Grade A courier assets located in the French cities of Paris, Lyon and Poitiers. The high quality assets were purchased on behalf of institutional clients for a core investment strategy from an OPCI (a French REIT), managed by BNP Paribas REIM. The three assets offer a total of 71,000 square meters of space and are fully let to Poste Immo, real estate subsidiary of Le Groupe La Poste, the French national postal service.
The Paris asset was built in 2011 and offers 23,000 square metres of space. The property is ideally located in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, which is 6.5 km from the city centre and adjacent to the A86 ring road, making it well positioned for last mile logistics, and due to its high land value, offers significant potential upside. A relatively short lease length provides an opportunity to generate income growth through active asset management and benefit from a dynamic leasing demand for last mile logistics.
The 28,000 square metre Lyon property is located in Saint-Laurent-de-Mure, which is five minutes by road from Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, the country’s third largest freight hub. Both the Paris and Lyon assets are situated within the French “Dorsale”, a primary logistics corridor that runs north to south from Lille to Marseille.
The third asset is in Poitiers, west-central France, and was built in 2008. The 21,000 square metre property is 6 kilometres from the city centre in an area dominated by light industrial and car show rooms, with good access to the A10 highway that links Paris and Bordeaux. Included in the acquisition is land adjacent to the existing warehouse, which provides potential for extension or development of a new facility.
Séverine Maumy-Laffineur, Managing Director and Real Estate Country Head – France at Barings, said, “Including this portfolio, we bought four logistics assets in France this year for our core strategy representing a total value of approximately €150 million. These latest assets not only further increase our exposure in France but also introduce us to the growing urban logistics market through the purchase of Villeneuve-la-Garenne in Paris. When appropriate, the asset will be repositioned to fit the requirements of the market for such a location.”
Gunther Deutsch, Managing Director, Head of Real Estate Transactions – Europe for Barings, said,
“These latest additions to our French portfolio brings our European logistic transaction volume in 2019 to €600 million, of which €555 million are acquisitions, currently representing the strongest sector of investment at Barings Europe. A new European logistics separate account will further increase our appetite for logistics across the core+ and value-add risk categories, in France as well as in countries such as Spain, Italy, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Germany.”
Guillaume Delattre, CIO at BNP Paribas REIM France, adds: “This transaction is a great outcome of our asset management strategy. Following the successful renewal of the leases, we took the opportunity to sell these three assets in a very dynamic real estate capital market.”
Source : Company