Tristan hits €523m record exit

Biggest single sale for Tristan Capital Partners as it offloads a large industrial portfolio to PointPark Properties, the pan-European logistics company owned by TPG Capital and Ivanhoé Cambridge.

Tristan Capital Partners, the London-based pan-European private equity real estate firm, has struck its largest single exit since starting out as an independent company five years ago.

In conjunction with Czech development investment partner, VGP, it has sold for €523 million a portfolio of prime logistics assets and developments in the Czech Republic to PointPark Properties (P3), the pan-European logistics real estate operator owned by US private equity firm TPG Capital and Canada’s Ivanhoé Cambridge.

The sale is the largest by Tristan since it started out in 2009 following a decoupling from AEW Europe, with the exit being made on behalf of European Property Investors Special Opportunities (EPISO 1), which raised €788 million in 2008. VGP, a Czech developer that made the original investment with Tristan in 2011, holds a 20 percent stake in the portfolio.

For its part, P3 is making strides in building its portfolio since the company was taken over by TPG and Ivanhoé Cambridge in October 2013.
The portfolio provides P3 with 6.74 million square feet of logistics warehouses as well as developable land spread over 11 parks and consisting of 58 warehouses in total.

Explaining the strategic importance of the country and the assets, Ian Worboys, P3’s chief executive officer, said the Czech Republic sat at a “crossroads of the main transport routes between Western Central and Eastern Europe”.

Following the transaction – which is subject to contract and still requires regulatory approvals – P3 will own one of the largest networks of logistics parks in Europe.

The biggest asset in the portfolio acquired is Prague’s Horní Pocernice, which represents about half of the portfolio, with the rest being 27 warehouses across the Czech Republic in locations such as Plzen, Liberec, Hradec, Kralove and Olomouc.