Canada's Slate buys four more German grocery-anchored portfolios
The Toronto-based Slate Asset Management continued its drive to build up a portfolio of German grocery-anchored assets with the acquisition of a further four portfolios consisting of 47 assets. The portfolios total 56,474 sqm of gross lettable space, and are located throughout Germany.
“The economic landscape continues to provide a compelling opportunity to acquire high-quality assets,” said Blair Welch, partner and co-founder of Slate. “We are happy with these acquisitions as they continue to solidify Slate’s long term commitment to our European platform.”
The portfolios include 47 assets in Germany primarily located along regional or arterial roads offering high visibility. The majority of the tenants are amongst the largest global retailers in the world, including Edeka, Lidl and REWE. Following the completion of these acquisitions, Slate Asset Management will own over 100 grocery-anchored assets in Germany, managed from its offices in Frankfurt am Main.
The latest investments bring to more than 100 grocery-anchored assets in the company's German holdings, allocated to its Slate European Real Estate Limited Partnership I fund. This follows on from the Canadian group's launch of its US Retail Redevelopment Fund in 2011, which established its track record as owners and operators.
Slate says that this is where it built its strong relationships with some of the largest US grocers, with whom it developed partnerships to develop and reposition properties. In Europe, the company's strategy is to invest in a diversified portfolio of grocery-anchored retail assets across Germany where it previously had a portfolio of 67 assets before this latest deal.
Those assets were bought in October 2016, as the Belfry and Truss portfolios from Euronext-listed Eurocastle group of closed-end funds, with 136,000 sqm of gross lettable space, which had been valued at end-June 2016 by Eurocastle at €128m.
Like this latest deal, the 67 properties were primarily located on main traffic thoroughfares with high local visibility, typical of the classic German Fachmarktzentrum. The majority of the tenants are among Germany's biggest retailers, including Lidl, Aldi, Edeka and REWE – as in this latest acquisition.
In Canada, Slate also operates the Slate Canadian Real Estate Opportunity Fund I which invests in multi-asset class opportunistic real estate investments for institutional capital partners and families. The fund says it seeks to reposition and redevelop property and pursues cyclical and portfolio investment opportunities. Overall, Slate has more tha $4bn in assets under management.