Rockspring, on behalf of Rockspring TEP V, has completed the sale of the Fund’s French logistics portfolio in its entirety to real estate funds managed by Blackstone for a total consideration of €233m.
Comprising just over 300,000 m² of grade A accommodation across seven properties, the portfolio was assembled by TEP V between December 2012 and September 2015 as part of the fund’s wider European logistics strategy. All of the properties are located within France’s key north/south logistics corridor, around Paris and Lyon, the largest being the 142,313 m² Paris-Oise Logistics Park, in Longueil Sainte Marie outside of Paris. Since 2012, Rockspring’s Paris office has implemented a number of successful asset management initiatives across the portfolio including re-tenanting, increasing overall occupancy levels and extending lease durations, together with some new development.
Paul Hampton, Partner at Rockspring and Fund Director of the TEP series of funds at Rockspring commented: “While the logistics sector in France remains an important part of our European real estate strategy, and indeed we continue to asset manage a significant portfolio from our Paris office, this transaction was timely and provided a compelling opportunity to realise value. Significant credit must go to both our London and Paris teams, who assembled this portfolio entirely off-market and have carried out some impressive ‘manage to core’ strategies.”
Kevin Muscat, European Director at Rockspring, commented: “The successful closure of what was a relatively complex corporate transaction in such a short space of time was facilitated by working with such a reliable and professional counter-party in Blackstone.”
TEP V is the fifth fund in Rockspring’s TransEuropean series. Launched in 2012 with an ability to invest €700m, the Fund was designed to enable investors to benefit from the re-pricing of the European property market and create a blend of core, high-cash-yielding core plus and value-add real estate. To date, the fund has invested circa €690m in UK, France, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. In July 2016, Rockspring announced the final close of the latest fund in the TransEuropean series, Rockspring TransEuropean Property Limited Partnership VI LLP (“TEP VI”). With equity commitments of €430m and leverage of up to 55%, it has a total expected spending power of circa €1bn. TEP VI is currently pursuing a similar logistics strategy in France and expects to have some €200m plus under ownership by the end of Q1 2017.
