Germany’s Union Investment has bought Logistrial Real Estate AG from GARBE Industrial Real Estate, buying all the shares in the company, which gives it ownership of a logistics portfolio of 13 existing properties and 6 development projects. The total floor area is approximately 580,000 sqm, while the purchase price was about €800 million.
The family-owned Garbe recently postponed its plans to float the Logistrial logistical property unit on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange due to market nervousness and a less-than-favourable climate for new launches. The IPO was expected to raise €500m-€565m to finance the acquisition of a secured seed portfolio from its parent, which would have continued to manage the assets.
The Logistrial division was originally established in 2019 with the intention of creating a logistics property portfolio and then putting both the company and the portfolio up for sale in the capital market.
Now, following the sale to Union Investment, GARBE Industrial Real Estate will continue to handle letting, property management and asset management of the existing portfolio and also of the new properties upon completion. Union plans to add the fully let existing properties and the ongoing development projects to its two open-ended real estate funds UniImmo: Europa and Unilmmo: Global. The 19 logistics properties are located in Germany, Austria, France and the Netherlands. Fifteen of the properties, representing an investment of 75% of the purchase price, are earmarked for the UniImmo: Europa portfolio, while four properties are destined for UniImmo: Global. According to Martin Brühl, chief investment officer and board member at Union Investment Real Estate, “The acquisition of the Logistrial portfolio is an important step towards strategically expanding our logistics portfolio and diversifying it across the leading European logistics markets. We are planning further steps of this kind, including portfolio acquisitions and single asset deals with developers, portfolio managers and owner-occupiers as part of sale and leaseback solutions, for example.”
Before buying Logistrial, Union Investment held 25 logistics properties worth around €1.2 billion. In autumn 2019, the Hamburg-based Union said it planned to at least double its logistics portfolio and diversify it internationally within Europe, with 12 European national markets in its sight for future acquisitions. Christopher Garbe, managing director of GARBE Industrial Real Estate, said: “As a result of Union Investment’s attractive offer and the prospect of being able to continue managing the properties in the long term, we decided to accept the offer and have successfully completed this complex transaction over recent weeks.“Following the Logistrial sale, Garbe subsequently bought two further logistics properties for its own German institutional fund (Spezialfonds) and its Garbe Logstikimmobilien Fonds Plus (GLIF+), located in Norderstedt, near Hamburg. With a combined gross lettable area of 63,000 sqm, the two properties are fully leased to specialists in textile logistics, with a WALT of about seven years respectively.
