Palmira kicks off new Class-A logistics fund with Austrian asset

German logistics investor Palmira Capital Partners has launched its first pan-European logistics fund, the Palmira Logistik Europa Fonds 1 (PLEF), with a target volume of €300 million. Over the next 18 months the fund will invest in core logistics properties in continental Europe, concentrating on Class-A logistics properties.

Palmira has already raised around €150 million of equity capital from German institutional investors. The targeted yield is at least 7% per annum.

The first investment acquired for the fund is an existing property in Enns, in Upper Austria. Providing a lettable area of 36,500 sqm, it is let on 12-year leases to the Quehenberger Group and drugstore chain dm drogerie. The transaction volume was around €29m. Palmira is currently carrying out a development project on the site, which will also be occupied by both companies. Completion is scheduled for summer 2016.

With partners, Palmira already manages two large logistics funds that are exclusively invested in German-speaking Europe. Along with UK-based partner Crossroads Real Estate, Palmira last month bought their first industrial property in Austria for their planned €300m joint venture holding First Business Parks, established earlier this year. The Tec Center Lebring, near Graz, was bought from project developer Wegraz, and contains 28,600 sqm of rental space with an 85% occupancy rate.

According to Palmira managing partner Alexander Hoff, "The acquisition of this Austrian property fits perfectly with the acquisition strategy of First Business Parks, set up to invest in light industrial properties in Austria, Germany and Poland."

Realogis

Meanwhile, another big logistics investor, the Munich-based fund initiator Realogis, said it was expecting to end the year on a surge by investing a further €100m before year-end, including a new acquisition of a 31,000 sqm portfolio valued at about €30m. This latter portfolio was bought from local developer Habacker Holding, consists of two newly-developed facilities in Waiblingen near Stuttgart and Langenau near Ulm, both with long-term tenants.

The Düsseldorf-based Habacker was general contractor for both properties, completing the Waiblingen parcel-handling centre with around 5,000 sqm of warehouse, office and social space in late 2014. Since the start of 2015 Deutsche Post DHL has been using the mechanical delivery point, and the letter distribution centre of its Stuttgart branch is located nearby. The Langenau logistics centre to the northeast of Ulm, was built this year and offers a total 26,500 sqm with three sections including office and social areas. Tenants since October are Schäflein Logistics and BoschRexroth.

Commerz Real sale

And in another big end-of-year transaction, Deutsche Bank's Alternatives & Real Assets division won out in a hard-fought bidding process to buy a big logistics portfolio from the hausInvest open-ended fund of Commerz Real. It paid a price of about €108m.

The portfolio consists of three assets and 54,000 sqm of space, which are fully-leased. Deutsche's open-ended fund grundbesitz europe will buy the assets which Commerz Real had bought between 2009 and 2011. The properties are the "Celebi Luftfrachtbasis“ in Cargo-City South at Frankfurt Airport, "Logicpark Airport“ in Kelsterbach, which is also in the immediate vicinity of Frankfurt Airport, and the "Hermes HUB“ not far from Hanover Airport in the city's Langenhagen district.

Deutsche's grundbesitz europa currently has a fund volume of about €4.8 billion and following this latest acquisition the portfolio encompasses 52 properties, of which about 7% is logistics.

According to Robert Bambach, board member at Commerz Real AG responsible for real estate transactions, "The values of the three properties have developed well as part of the hausInvest portfolio. Against the background of the strong demand on the part of investors for high-quality logistics real estate in the immediate vicinity of airports it was an excellent point in time for the fund to complete a sale. This does not at all mean, however, that hausInvest is withdrawing completely from the logistics sector. We are retaining our real estate in Harlow, England, and renewed investments in this segment so as to ensure the desired portfolio blend cannot be excluded.“