Managers

Garbe Group targets UK industrial development

The German property company has launched a €500m fund to acquire and develop warehouse units. The move comes as a number of investors launch UK vehicles as a recovery play. The firm has reportedly reached agreement on two assets valued at £40m.

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Garbe Group, the private German property investment firm, has reportedly launched a €500 million ($737 million) industrial fund targeting UK assets.

Garbe, which has offices in Hamburg, London, Paris, Istanbul and Moscow, has already reached agreement on acquiring two assets at a total of £40 million.

The mid-cap property company established in 1965 has been investing in the UK since 2000, when it refurbished  Victoria House near London's Bloomsbury Square.

Since then the company has been expanding across Europe, opening in France through Garbe France in 2003, and then in Turkey and Moscow.

The UK industrial fund is a recovery play. A number of firms are considering investing in assets in the hopes of a recovery in UK property. In May, RREEF, Deutsche Bank's alternative investments arm, published report 'UK Real Estate – an opportunity?' suggesting rental recovery will occur across most sectors in the UK market as early as 2009 before strengthening further into 2010.