Valad Europe announces new €500 mln joint venture with the purchase of the €140 mln UNO portfolio (NL)

Valad Europe, the leading independent diversified real estate investment manager, has entered into a joint venture agreement with an investor to build a diversified portfolio of Dutch assets called the Valad Netherlands Diversified Partnership (VNDP).
It has also completed VNDP’s maiden investment with the purchase of the €140 mln UNO portfolio, comprising six assets with a mixture of c. 53,000 m² office and c. 6,000 m² retail space, from Unibail-Rodamco.
With an initial target gross asset value of €500 mln, VNDP will invest in Core Plus / Value Add assets in the Netherlands. Seeded with €200 mln of equity, VNDP will employ 60% to 70% leverage, with strong cash-on-cash yields. Debt financing for VNDP will be sourced from a pool of lenders with whom Valad Europe already has existing relationships, with financing for the UNO portfolio transaction provided by ING.
VNDP will invest in the office, industrial and out-of-town retail sectors in the Netherlands. It will seek to acquire good quality, well located real estate targeting both single assets and portfolios, primarily in lot sizes ranging from €10 to €100 mln.
Christian Bearman, Valad Europe’s Head of Corporate Development and Operations, commented: “We are pleased to be partnering with an investor who shares our desire to capitalize on this window of opportunity in the Dutch real estate market. Valuations and occupancy levels in certain sub-markets of the Netherlands are currently out of sync with the underlying economic recovery, providing an attractive counter cyclical opportunity for the Valad Netherlands Diversified Partnership to invest on a large scale in high quality offices, industrial and out-of-town retail assets in specific strategic locations.”
The launch of the Valad Netherlands Diversified Partnership comes soon after it launched a similar vehicle targeting Central European retail assets in October. Since becoming a private company three years ago, Valad Europe has enjoyed a strong period of growth, during which time it has achieved new fund launches, mandates, fund extensions and investment capacity of €5.6 bln. It now has approximately €1.8 bln of investment capacity to target acquisitions in the Netherlands, Central Europe, Germany, France and the UK.
Source: Tavistock