Deals

CBRE GI scoops €128m German logistics portfolio

The real estate investment management business of property services giant CBRE has picked up a 10-strong portfolio of ‘cross dock’ assets, which are all let long-term to logistics giant DHL. 

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CBRE Global Investors (GI) has acquired a portfolio of ten logistics assets spread across western Germany for €128.4 million.

The deal was made on behalf of two of CBRE GI’s separate accounts clients, however the firm did not disclose further details. The portfolio was acquired in an off-market deal and the vendor was German real estate developer Hellmich Unternehmensgruppe.

The assets comprise 10 newly-developed modern ‘cross dock’ facilities with six of the assets located in the North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populated state of Germany. The four remaining assets are located in Hesse and Baden-Wuerttemberg, two other states in western Germany.

Cross-docking is the practice in logistics of unloading materials from incoming trucks directly into outbound trucks with little or no storage in between.

The entire portfolio is let to logistics giant DHL with an average lease length of 13 years. The total lettable area of all the assets is 512,000 square feet and the total site area amounts to 1.9 million square feet.

All assets are located close to cites and are smaller in size compared to standard warehouses, a spokesman for CBRE GI said. This, he said, is to meet the changing requirements of the logistics sector where shorter delivery times are demanded due to the rise in e-commerce.

Marius Schöner, head of Germany at CBRE GI said: “DHL is the biggest parcel deliverer in Germany and the sheds are of strategic importance to them. We believe that these factors make this a unique acquisition and one that will generate stable income for our clients.”

While Ulrich Oppermann, head of German transactions at CBRE GI, said the firm had “significant” capital to invest in Germany and would be targeting similar assets throughout 2017.

The firm’s most recently publicized logistics deal was in April last year, when it purchased a portfolio of 16 logistics assets, totaling 2.7 million square feet, in one of Spain’s main logistical hubs, between Barcelona and Madrid. The deal was also made on behalf of an undisclosed separate account client.