Macquarie acquires €40m German industrial portfolio

The private equity real estate firm affiliated with the Australian bank has agreed to purchase eight industrial assets, seven of which are located in Stuttgart.

Macquarie Global Property Advisors is set to acquire eight light industrial properties in Germany for €40 million ($52 million) as it looks to capitalize on the country’s economic recovery. The name of the seller was not disclosed.

The eight-property portfolio comprises 63,000 square meters of space and has an occupancy rate of 98 percent. Seven of the properties are located in Stuttgart, one of the automotive industry’s hubs in Germany, and a number of the property’s tenants are automotive companies. Approximately 75 percent of the portfolio is light industrial space with the remainder used as offices.

“We are very positive about the German real estate market at the moment with the economy continuing to gain momentum,” Alex Jeffrey, managing director of Macquarie Global Property Advisors, said in a statement. “In particular we see significant opportunity in the light industrial sector which is emerging as an institutional asset class offering the potential for further yield compression.”

Earlier this year, MGPA acquired eight office and logistics properties from Sony in a €121.1 million sale and leaseback transaction. Two of the assets in that portfolio were located in Cologne, Germany.

In an interview with Private Equity Real Estate this summer, James Quille, chief executive officer of MGPA, noted that the firm sees a “real change in the nature and quality of logistics space” given the expansion of the European Union and new directives on storage handling and the amount of time drivers spend behind the wheel.

The equity financing for both the Sony and Germany transactions came from MGPA’s second private equity real estate fund, Macquarie Global Property Fund II, which raised $1.3 billion in 2005 to invest in the European and Asian property markets. In November, the firm raised an $865-million core-plus vehicle focused on Japan.

Macquarie Global Property Advisors was formed in 2004 as part of a management buyout from Lend Lease. The firm is owned by its principals and the Australian financial institution Macquarie Bank.