Gramercy Property Europe plc (the "fund"), the Europe-focused real estate investment fund, advised by Gramercy Europe Limited ("GEL"), the real estate investment fund manager focused on sale leaseback and single tenant transactions, announces that it has agreed to acquire a 74.9% stake in a portfolio of logistics assets in Germany and France, from Gramercy Property Trust. The portfolio is valued in excess of €300m. The transaction follows the fund’s acquisition of a 20% stake in the same portfolio, from Goodman Europe Development Trust, on 31 May 2016. Following both these transactions, the Fund now owns 94.9% of the portfolio by value, with the remaining 5.1% owned by Gramercy Property Trust, GEL’s New York Stock Exchange-listed parent company.
The portfolio comprises nine high quality logistics assets, eight of which are located in Germany and one in France, providing 500,000m² of space. The buildings have a weighted average age of five years and are fully leased to single tenants, with over 60% of the rent due from Amazon.
Goodman, the integrated commercial and industrial property group, has been mandated to carry out the property management services.
Alistair Calvert, managing director of Gramercy Europe, commented: “This is a significant acquisition for Gramercy Property Europe. In the past 12 months we have acquired €602m of long leased, single tenant assets across Europe. The majority of the portfolio comprises high quality logistics assets and the fund has a WALT of 8.6 years. Over half of the assets are located in Germany, with 24% in the Netherlands and 11% in France.
“Gramercy Property Europe is well positioned going into the uncertain markets of the coming months. The investment mandate to create a long dated yield vehicle is more relevant than ever and we believe our investment thesis and geographic focus to be highly appropriate.
“We are currently closing on further assets for the Fund in Germany, France and the Netherlands. The investment pipeline is still highly active and we expect a significant investment volume through the next six months.”
