Barings, one of the world’s largest diversified real estate investment managers, has exchanged contracts to acquire eight prime logistic assets from NFU Mutual for £234 million. The portfolio was purchased as part of a pan-European strategy to acquire core real estate.
The eight assets are situated in prime and well-established logistics locations in the UK, comprising a total area of 1,477,431 sq ft. By floor area, 53% of the portfolio is located in the Midlands, 22% in the South West, 16% in the South East, and 9% in the North West. Fully let, the tenant base is diversified, with the likes of e-commerce, manufacturing and freight brands including HelloFresh at Central M40 Banbury, two units let to GKN at Avonmouth, Rolls-Royce at Sherwood Park Nottingham, Eddie Stobart at DIRFT Daventry, Eurocell at South Normanton, Countryside Properties at Warrington and the recently developed Deichmann distribution unit at Centrix Park Corby.
Barings was represented by Acre and CMS. NFU Mutual was advised by Burbage Realty, Knight Frank and Gowlings.
Darren Hutchinson, Managing Director and Head of UK Real Estate Transactions at Barings, said: “As one of our preferred investment sectors, alongside offices and residential, we are always keen to explore opportunities in the logistics space. We believe the pricing shift in the sector, in particular for CPI-linked assets with cap and collars, represents a short-term relative value opportunity, particularly given the strength of the sector’s long term fundamentals. Having grown our logistics portfolio over the past few years, this acquisition of prime assets in excellent locations, with an impressive and diversified tenant mix, significantly enhances our reach in the market.”
Charles Weeks, Head of European and Asia Pacific Real Estate at Barings, said: “The UK logistics market continues to perform strongly from an occupational perspective and we believe provides robust characteristics to support our longer-term investment strategy. Our appetite remains for other core and value-add real estate opportunities in UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the Nordics.”
Jon Brice, Fund Manager at NFU Mutual said: “The transaction represents a continuation of NFU Mutual’s industrial strategy. I would like to thank all those involved in this transaction, in particular the teams at Burbage Realty, Knight Frank, Hollis, PSK and Gowlings”.
