Warburg-HIH, Nord/LB launch new €250m logistics fund
The Hanover-headquartered German state bank Nord/LB and Warburg-HIH Invest are launching a new logistics real estate fund called Warburg-HIH Deutschland Logistik Invest, targeting a fund volume of around €250m.
The open-ended special alternative investment fund will invest exclusively in German logistics real estate and is targeting a gearing ratio of 45%, with an expected dividend yield of between 4.5% and 5.5%. Institutional players may invest in the fund by acquiring equity interests of €2.5m or more.
'The fund will invest in modern distribution and trans-shipment centres with alternative use potential, located in established sites throughout Germany,' said Alexander Eggert, managing director at Warburg-HIH Invest. 'The asset value of the properties, which are occupied on long-term leases, ranges from €10m to €40m. It is planned to add some properties with optimisation potential to boost the performance.'
According to Warburg-HIH, logistics is the most important economic sector in Germany after the automotive industry and retailing at the moment. 'The main factors driving the increase in the movement of goods are global economic growth, the increasing product diversity and the rising significance of e-commerce,' said Andreas Strey, senior fund manager at Warburg-HIH Invest.
'The demand for space generated by these trends is matched by a low floor space supply, the result being that vacancy rates are very low and that rents in the central logistics regions are subject to a stable trend,' Strey concluded.
Earlier this month Warburg-HIH Invest sold off three multi-tenant assets from one of its open-ended institutional real estate funds, Deutschland Selektiv Immobilien Invest, for an unnamed price. The three properties – Sanitätshaus Schlieben in Sonnenstrasse 17 in Munich, a doctors’ office building at Hahnenstrasse 13-15 in Cologne, and an office building at Gutleutstrasse 32 in Frankfurt - had been bought as part of a portfolio deal in 2017.
“Reshuffling the portfolio is part of the fund’s strategic alignment and helps to optimise the revenue situation. The freed-up capital is being reinvested in assets in Potsdam and Darmstadt,” said Alexander Eggert, Managing Director for Fund and Product Management at Warburg-HIH Invest.
Warburg-HIH’s Deutschland Selektiv Immobilien Invest fund has a target volume between €300m and €350m, and is currently committed to nine properties valued at more than €200m. Its investments in office real estate with no more than 30% in retail real estate as an add-on option focus on fast-growing German cities and are expected to return an annual dividend yield of 4%. The fund is distributed exclusively by long-term partner Nord/LB.