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Two of the largest investors in global real estate have struck a deal that will see them invest as much as £3B of new capital in UK and European industrial assets over the next few years.
AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest superannuation fund, bought a 50% stake in Canada-based Oxford Properties' €840M (£705M) European portfolio of last-mile and medium-box logistics assets.
It has also bought a stake in M7 Real Estate, the industrial specialist owned by Oxford Properties that manages the assets.
Having completed the initial deal, the two investors will now look to take the portfolio to €4.5B (£3.77B) in the next three to five years. That will mean buying £3B of new assets in a portfolio called the European Supply Chain Income Partnership.
The venture will look to buy smaller, multitenanted, core-plus or value-add assets near large cities and population centres, as well as core-plus, midbox distribution and warehouse assets in key logistics corridors.
The portfolio currently comprises about 7.9M SF of urban logistics and distribution warehouses across 76 assets, Oxford said in a statement. The properties are in 19 last-mile hubs in the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. It is 90% leased and has 214 tenants, with about half the portfolio deemed urban.
Oxford bought M7 in 2021, and at the tail end of last year, it sold its UK retail park portfolio to Redevco for £518M.
“We believe there are exciting prospects in this high conviction strategy, a major pillar of Oxford’s capital deployment ambitions in the region for 2025,” Oxford Executive Vice President and Head of Europe Joanne McNamara said in a statement.
“We believe urban logistics and distribution represents one the most compelling sector opportunities in European real estate today, and have been tracking the sector for several years to find the right portfolio that meets our ambitions, with strong fundamentals and significant growth potential,” AustralianSuper Head of Real Assets Paul Clark said.
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