LeadCrest Capital Partners has launched as a new fund management business specializing in sale-leaseback transactions across Europe.
The new business will target Europe’s untapped sale-leaseback market, focusing on transactions between €10 million and €50 million ($11.2 million and $44.8 million) in Western and Northern Europe. It will invest in office, industrial, retail and special-purpose properties with leases of more than 10 years.
Operating from its offices in Paris, London and Luxembourg, the business will focus on sale-leaseback and build-to-suit transactions.
LeadCrest will be led by founder Georges Asmar as president and managing director. Prior to founding LeadCrest, Asmar was managing director and global head of net-lease investments at global real estate firm Colony Capital, where he established the firm’s global sale-leaseback strategy, originating more than $6.9 billion in deals across 80 transactions and closed on approximately $1 billion of transactions during his tenure.
“Sale-leaseback as an investment strategy is largely untapped in Europe outside of the United Kingdom. In the United States, it is an established and growing asset class, with more than $50 billion of transactions taking place each year and as many as 42 institutional funds focusing purely on sale leaseback,” said Asmar. “LeadCrest is the first fund manager to specialize in European sale-leaseback on a dedicated basis, and we intend to combine our U.S. skillsets with a deep understanding and experience of country-specific dynamics, particularly in continental Europe.”
He added, “We see very positive opportunities across Europe, where there is clear demand from strong companies to secure long-term financing, but where sale-leaseback activity to date has been very limited. Even in markets such as the United Kingdom, where sale-leaseback is more common, we believe there remains significant pull and push factors that point to further growth in sale-leaseback transactions.”
The business’s objective is to build a diversified portfolio of high-yielding real estate assets, occupied by credit tenants on long-term, triple-net leases.
LeadCrest’s senior leadership team will include Pascal Leclerc, who has been appointed as LeadCrest’s COO and managing director. Leclerc brings more than 25 years of experience in fund management, structuring and administration, including four years as managing director at Colony Capital Luxembourg Sàrl.
LeadCrest’s advisory panel of real estate experts will include Stuart Koenig, who served as senior partner and COO at Ares’ $10 billion real estate division, and Reggie Winssinger, the founder and chairman of National Portfolio Inc. and an expert in net-lease transactions through his 23-year tenure as board member of W. P. Carey.
Former Wharton Business School professor and academic leader Olivier Chatain, of international business school HEC Paris, will also serve on LeadCrest’s advisory board, advising on corporate strategy.
