KKR, acting through a new joint venture with Round Hill Capital and Pulsar Properties, has forward purchased four well-located purpose-built Spanish logistics warehouse developments. These four institutional-quality schemes are strategically located in the strong and established logistics markets of Madrid and Barcelona, in areas with excellent transport connectivity, deep tenant demand, low vacancy rates and a very constrained supply of available logistics buildings and development land.
Located in Ontigola, south of Madrid on the third logistics ring, facing the A4 and near to the A5, R4 and R5 motorways that link Madrid to the South of Spain, the first asset offers 21,145m². The second property is located in Parets del Valles, Barcelona. The site benefits from a good city centre and airport and port connectivity, as it is facing the AP-7 in the intersection with C-17 road, both forming part of the Mediterranean trade corridor linking northern Barcelona to the South of France, south to the rest of Spain via the E15 along the Eastern coast. It totals 19,907m².
The joint venture has also acquired two freehold high specification logistics warehouse developments in Torija, Madrid. The properties comprise 33,091m² and 20,280m² respectively and benefit from good access to the city centre and the A2 and A1 motorways.
Seb d’Avanzo, Director at KKR, commented: “We are delighted to have acquired these four high-quality Spanish logistics warehouse developments, our joint venture’s first investments in Spain’s logistics sector, a market which is continuing to exhibit attractive investment fundamentals and strong future growth drivers. These are high-quality developments in excellent locations. KKR’s European real estate platform has an impressive track record in executing partnership deals, and we look forward to working closely with Pulsar Properties and Round Hill Capital to expand our footprint in logistics.”
Jose Maria Alana Arrinda, founder and CEO of Pulsar Properties, said: “We are pleased to have concluded a joint venture agreement with KKR and Round Hill Capital, which has resulted in the creation of the Pulsar Iberia Logistics vehicle. This vehicle, whose medium-term goal is to acquire 400,000m² of logistics space benefits from having a seed portfolio of four logistics platforms in different locations (Barcelona and Madrid) with a total area of more than 94,000m². The agreement reached represents an important strategic alliance, in which each party contributes the necessary experience in order to create one of the largest logistics portfolios in Spain. Pulsar Properties provides its knowledge of the industrial, logistics and intermodal sector in Spain when locating, analysing, managing and developing new investments, bringing a competitive advantage to operating in the Spanish market.”
Commenting on the acquisition, Michael Bickford, founder and CEO of Round Hill Capital, said: “Round Hill has been evaluating the Spanish and southern European logistics real estate markets for several years and we have been strengthening our existing management expertise and capabilities in Spain. In a joint venture with KKR, we have significant dedicated capital to deploy in select areas of Spain and southern Europe, which continue to see long term supply constraints of well-located high-quality logistics assets with excellent transport connectivity coupled with deep and increasing tenant demand. We are pleased to partner with KKR and Pulsar Properties to acquire these four investments, our first logistics warehouse transactions in Spain, which significantly enhance our existing Southern European Logistics platform strategy and growth plans. Round Hill is continuing to look to make further investments in logistics property in Spain, and across wider southern Europe in line with our existing growth strategy.”
