INTERNATIONAL: Blackstone’s LogiCor to Acquire 18 Logistics Properties in Europe for $375M

By Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

In an approximately $375 million deal, Blackstone’s industrial arm LogiCor has agreed to expand its portfolio with the acquisition of 18 logistics facilities in eight European countries.

SEB Asset Management is exiting the logistics market with the sale of these properties, which offer more than 4.6 million square feet of rental space, with an average occupancy rate of about 85 percent and a remaining lease term of 3.8 years.

SEB Asset Management used a structured bidding process to sell the assets, which allows the company to exploit the market trend and dispose of its entire logistics portfolio at an attractive price. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2014.

‘‘Given the current demand situation, we decided to strategically exit the logistics market and have achieved a highly satisfactory result for our investors’’, Barbara Knoflach, CEO of SEB Asset Management AG and Managing Director of SEB Investment GmbH, said in a news release. ‘‘We were able to successfully complete the marketing of this regionally highly diversified portfolio within only three months thanks to our close-knit market network and the buyer’s confidence in our real estate expertise and our execution ability.’’

Located in key European regions, the 18 assets are included in four different portfolios. Three properties worth more than $50 million are from the open-ended real estate fund SEB ImmoInvest; 10 properties worth nearly $230 million are from SEB ImmoPortfolio Target Return Fund; four properties worth more than 84.5 million are from SEB Global Property Fund, while another logistics building is from a special fund.

The purchase agreement is in line with LogiCor’s rapid expansion strategy in Europe. In February, the company acquired two logistics portfolios in Poland totaling 4.3 million square feet from Panattoni Europe.

Later in June, LogiCor paid more than $161 million for the acquisition of an additional seven Polish logistics assets from U.K.-based Standard Life Investments‘ Select Property Fund.