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Clarion Partners acquires stake in Gramercy Europe
Investors - APRIL 10, 2019

Clarion Partners acquires stake in Gramercy Europe

by Andrea Zander

Clarion Partners has acquired a majority stake in Gramercy Europe.

Gramercy Europe will become an operating business of Clarion and be rebranded as Clarion Gramercy, maintaining its offices in London, Berlin and Barcelona.

“We are very excited to broaden the investment reach of Clarion Partners into the European markets,” said David Gilbert, Clarion Partners’ CEO. “Clarion Gramercy and its seasoned team are a natural extension of Clarion’s leadership position in the United States, managing a $16 billion, 700-property portfolio of logistics assets. We are pleased to be in position to expand our product offerings to investors and to satisfy existing tenants that have needs beyond the Americas.”

The current Gramercy Europe CEO, Alistair Calvert, will continue to lead the Clarion Gramercy business. Formerly Calvert had been head of the European office for W.P. Carey, one of the largest global real estate investors. In 2006, he established ThreadGreen Partners, which was purchased by Gramercy Property Trust in December 2014 and rebranded as Gramercy Europe. Since then, Calvert and his team have been responsible for more than $3 billion of real estate transactions in Europe.

Calvert added, “The Gramercy Europe management team has been able to consistently extract upside on behalf of its investors through identifying, acquiring, managing and disposing of institutional-quality properties in key logistics locations throughout Western Europe. We plan to continue capitalizing on the expansion of the undersupplied European logistics property market and leveraging the deep relationships that we have built with some of Europe’s leading businesses. We expect ongoing demand from a range of occupiers that span Europe and the United States, fueled by the growth in ecommerce and expanded trade. We are excited by the synergies created by joining the Clarion Partners investment management platform, and we look forward to enhancing our global investment management business.”

As a majority owner of Clarion Partners, Legg Mason views this transaction as part of its strategic commitment to furthering growth opportunities for its investment affiliates.

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