Partners Group Splashes £253m on UK Industrial Portfolio
Swiss Giant Prepares to Scale Portfolio with £200M More of UK buys in Next Two Years
Swiss investment giant Partners Group has bought a 3.6m-sq-ft portfolio of UK industrial from Paloma Capita for £253m.
The Zug-based investment company said it intends to scale the portfolio with an additional £200m of equity to fund new acquisitions of UK light industrial assets over the next 24 months.
The portfolio is spread across the UK, with most of the properties in the West Midlands, Yorkshire and the North West. It generates a diversified income with a tenant base of over 250 companies from different sectors including logistics, engineering, distribution, trade and manufacturing. Paloma Capital participated in the acquisition as a co-investor and will remain the operating partner to the portfolio.
Partners Group said it plans various value-creation initiatives for the current portfolio, including “increasing occupancy, refurbishing units to upgrade and modernize facilities so they better suit tenant requirements, improving site accessibility and enhancing energy efficiency”.
Rahul Ghai, managing director and co-head of private real estate for Europe at Partners Group, stated: “The UK light industrial sector is seeing high levels of demand due to the rise of ecommerce, a key transformative trend we have been following, yet shrinking supply, which is being caused by competition for land from other real estate segments such as residential. Although the Brexit transition has caused some uncertainties, we don’t expect them to have a significant and lasting impact on the structural tailwinds supporting the sector.”
Keeran Kang, a member of management for private real estate in Europe for Partners Group, added: “This portfolio of assets is diversified in terms of location, tenant base, asset size and offering, making it an attractive investment opportunity. The light industrial sector is one of Partners Group’s top relative value propositions within real estate and this portfolio provides a great opportunity to increase our exposure to it. We are looking forward to making add-on acquisitions to the portfolio over the next two years.”
Partners Group was advised by Clifford Chance and Deloitte.