Global investment giant EQT Real Estate is buying into the middling U.S. cold storage sector with a $1.3B joint venture with publicly traded operator Americold Realty Trust.

The world’s second-largest private equity firm will pay roughly $1.1B in cash to kick off the partnership with a portfolio of 12 facilities totaling 124M cubic feet of storage, which Americold says will make the standalone venture one of the largest cold storage operators in North America.

Stockholm-based EQT will acquire a 70% interest in the properties, with Americold holding the remaining equity interest and staying on as the day-to-day manager of the assets.

Americold also reported mixed first-quarter results along with the JV announcement, with revenue down 1.9% year-over-year and a net loss of $13.6M for the quarter. Adjusted funds from operations fell nearly 15% from last year to $81.9M. The cold storage operator’s total portfolio spans 1.4B cubic feet spread across 224 facilities on four continents.

“This joint venture is an important strategic step for Americold, significantly strengthening our balance sheet, while aligning us with a strong partner in EQT who recognizes the intrinsic value of our mission-critical assets and the inherent growth opportunities in our business,” Americold CEO Rob Chambers said in a statement.

Americold plans to use proceeds from the transaction to pay down debt, which totaled $4.4B at the end of March, nearly all of which was unsecured. EQT is making the investment through its EQT Active Core Infrastructure fund.

The REIT’s stock was up 14% on the news in early trading Thursday, erasing a roughly 3% slide in value from the start of the year. The cold storage sector is facing the same headwinds as the broader industrial market, with a wave of pandemic-era development leading to a glut of new inventory.

Cold storage warehouse vacancy hit nearly 7% at the end of 2025, the highest rate in at least 20 years, according to Newmark. New properties faced the highest vacancy rate, at 10.1% compared to the less-than-3% vacancy rate for facilities built between 2006 and 2019.

The joint venture transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, and the two companies expect to add to the portfolio over time, with Americold providing development support and identifying potential growth opportunities.

The deal is the second major cold storage investment from EQT in the past two years. The firm, which has roughly $316B in assets under management, acquired Constellation Cold Logistics and its 26 large facilities in Europe for an undisclosed price in June 2024. The Americold deal is a continuation of that strategy, EQT partner Benjamin Bygott-Webb said.

“This partnership reflects EQT’s conviction in cold chain infrastructure as an essential, resilient sector with strong long-term fundamentals,” he said.

EQT has been actively shuffling its industrial holdings in the U.S. over the past year. It brought in $650M through the sale of a 36-warehouse portfolio to Ares Management in March, the same month that it spent $575M to acquire a 4.4M SF portfolio of 25 warehouses along the East Coast.

EQT CEO Per Franzen told Bloomberg TV in October the company was looking to spend more than $250B picking up U.S. assets.