Moorfield Group has entered into a joint venture with Stor-Age, a South African self-storage Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and owner of leading UK self-storage business Storage King. The joint venture aims to build an initial €55-110m (£50-100m) portfolio of modern, tech-enabled high-profile self-storage assets in the UK.
Moorfield will be the majority investor, on behalf of its Moorfield Real Estate Fund IV. The joint venture aims to develop self-storage assets with a focus on London and the South East. The portfolio will benefit from being operated under the Storage King brand, which currently trades from a platform of 28 stores, providing over 1 million ft² of high-quality storage space across the UK. The companies are in advanced discussions on a number of acquisitions, leveraging Storage King’s established relationships and industry experience to secure off-market opportunities. The pipeline comprises a mix of subject-to-planning development sites, turn-key developments and existing investment assets.
Marc Gilbard, CEO of Moorfield Group, commented: “As a specialist alternative real estate investor with a track record of generating strong returns from the timely recognition and discerning exposure to sectors benefitting from changing demographic and societal change, the UK self-storage sector is a natural fit for our investment portfolio. Replicating the strategy of our recent nursing and dementia care-home partnership, we have selected a best-in-class partner whose operational and origination expertise will enable us to both access the sector and then scale a portfolio in a meaningful way. Self-storage as an asset class has been one of the more resilient during this period of uncertainty and is set to benefit from a number of favourable structural trends, and with a strong pipeline of assets already identified, we are excited to be launching this latest venture on behalf of our investors.”
Steven Horton, Executive Director of Stor-Age, commented: “We are delighted to have formed a partnership with Moorfield in order to execute our strategic growth plans in the UK over the medium-term. The UK self-storage industry presents a significant and attractive growth opportunity and we remain encouraged by the consistent performance of the Storage King business this year, despite the backdrop of uncertainty and a muted economic environment as a result of COVID-19. All properties will be branded and managed by Storage King as part of our third-party management platform, Management 1st.”
