Macquarie Global Property Advisors (MGPA) and Concerto Développement SAS (Concerto), a company of Affine group, have signed a joint venture to develop a 250 million portfolio of major logistics distribution parks in France.
Under the joint venture, MGPA, on behalf of its managed fund MGP Europe Fund II, will hold a majority position in the joint-venture, with Concerto as a minority shareholder. The new joint venture will be known as Logiffine.
The venture will initially develop logistics facilities at two sites which have already been identified, one near Valence and the other near Lille. These initial projects will have a combined value of €90 million and provide close to 130,000 m² of lettable space.
The venture intends to seek further opportunities to develop logistics parks in France in order to build a portfolio to the value of at least €250 million.
MGPA Managing Director Alex Jeffrey said, "There is a real gap in the market for high quality logistics facilities that are well located for transport serving destinations not only in France but all of Europe. These facilities will fill that gap.
"This market opportunity, coupled with the depth of experience and expertise that Concerto has in developing logistics parks, makes this a very exciting joint venture for the Fund," said Mr Jeffrey.
"I believe there is a healthy outlook for this sector over the medium to long term. This investment will allow us to capture that potential value and deliver strong returns to our investors."
Concerto CEO Ariel Lahmi said, "We feel that MGPA is a perfect partner for us on this venture given the strong cultural fit between the two companies and our common strategy for achieving maximum value from the logistics market in France.
"We look forward to further developing our relationship by working closely together for the development of the portfolio, which markedly widens the scope of our activity."
MGP Fund II closed in September last year with equity commitments of $1.3 billion.
"Despite the competitive market we are seeing a lot of interesting investment opportunities in a number of countries across Europe and across all real estate sectors. We are making excellent progress with our acquisition programme and expect to be making more announcements in the near future," said Mr Jeffrey.
Source: Affine
