pbb provides €86m to Ares Real Estate for Italian logistics portfolio play

Eight assets, 150,000 m² of prime warehouse space, and a debt package sealed in one of Europe's most active industrial corridors.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank has arranged and fully underwritten an €86m debt package to support the acquisition of an eight-asset Italian logistics portfolio by Kryalos SGR on behalf of Fondo Canova, a fund wholly owned by a vehicle co-managed by Ares Management Corporation and Ares Commercial Real Estate. The financing covers both the purchase price and planned capital expenditure, underscoring the confidence both parties place in Italy's continued logistics expansion.

The portfolio spans over 150,000 m² of gross lettable area, with the majority of assets concentrated in Northern Italy, positioned along established industrial corridors with direct access to expressways and motorways. The eight warehouses carry a diversified tenant mix and will be jointly managed by Kryalos and the Marq Logistics team, the vertically integrated logistics real estate platform of Ares Management Corporation with a global footprint exceeding 60 million m² across more than 2,000 properties.

For investors and developers tracking European industrial real estate, a detail worth noting is the inclusion of capex financing within the debt package. This signals an active value-add strategy rather than a passive hold, suggesting planned improvements to the assets that could drive further rental growth, an approach increasingly favoured as vacancy rates across Northern Italian logistics hubs remain near historic lows amid persistent undersupply of Grade A stock.

The transaction reinforces pbb's position as a go-to specialist lender for income-producing logistics assets across continental Europe, acting here as both arranger and sole lender. For Ares, whose global alternative assets under management exceeded $525bn as of December 2024, including the March 2025 acquisition of GLP Capital Partners, the deal adds further scale to a real estate platform already operating at significant depth across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Italy's logistics market has drawn sustained institutional capital in recent years, driven by e-commerce penetration, near-shoring of supply chains, and a chronic shortage of modern distribution facilities relative to demand. Northern Italy, in particular, remains the most liquid sub-market, benefiting from its proximity to major consumption centres and its role as a gateway between southern European trade routes and the rest of the continent. Deals of this structure, blending acquisition and capex financing into a single package from a sole lender, reflect how capital providers are evolving their product to meet the operational ambitions of large-scale logistics investors.