Europa Capital grows core diversified income strategy seeded by Mitsubishi Estate
Europa Capital, a pan-European real estate investment manager, has completed the acquisition of a newly refurbished, 21,054-square-meter (226,623-square-foot) logistics asset in the Netherlands as part of an investment strategy into core diversified income assets in Europe, which is being seeded by capital from Mitsubishi Estate, Europa Capital’s principal shareholder.
The purchase follows shortly after the acquisition of a Paris office as part of the same strategy and expands this portfolio to three assets in three countries in the office and logistics sectors.
In the short term, Europa Capital will primarily seek additional investments in office, logistics and residential assets and is targeting an investment capacity of up to €500 million ($570 million) sourced from institutional investors in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The property, which is fully leased to three high-quality tenants, Nokia, Saint Gobain, and Enexis, is located on Atlasstraat in the modern Vossenberg II industrial estate in Tilburg. Tilburg is one of the Netherlands’ primary logistics hot spots, which benefits from its strategic location close to the north-south and the east-west distribution corridors, as well as a multi-modal transport network that includes a well-established road network, one of the largest barge terminals in the Netherlands with direct shipping access to and from the port of Rotterdam, and rail links with direct trains to China.
The first of the other assets in the core diversified income portfolio comprises a multi-let office building in Munich, Germany, where Europa Capital has increased occupancy from 90 percent to 100 percent in 15 months since acquisition. The second asset is the 7,980-square-meter (85,896-square-foot) Imagine office building in Neuilly-sur-Seine, an established and attractive office district between the Paris CBD and La Defense, which was acquired last week.
The combined Paris, Munich and Tilburg transactions take the total investment for Europa Capital’s diversified income strategy to more than €155 million ($178 million) with further acquisitions being targeted by the end of the year.
“We have acquired an asset in undoubtedly one of the strongest logistics locations in the Netherlands, which benefits from compelling occupational market dynamics that should translate into strong diversified income performance for this strategy,” said James Farmer, transaction director at Europa Capital for core products. “We intend to follow up this acquisition with further investments into the logistics sector, which is buoyed by structural changes in retailing, e-commerce and supply chains, with a particular focus on the Dutch market.”
Andy Watson, partner at Europa Capital, added, “This third acquisition plants a flag for the diversified income strategy in each one of our three main target markets: France, Germany and the Netherlands. In selecting this stock, we see three buildings which are deliberately diverse by sector and location but share a common theme: locations in undersupplied markets with healthy demand and which have begun to see real income growth. In the short to medium term, there are strong prospects of further income growth at these properties. In the longer term, these are locations which should remain liquid in both occupational and investment markets.”
