Business space investor and manager, Segro, has demonstrated its commitment to the Midlands’ logistics “golden triangle” by acquiring three distribution warehouses in the region for just under £50m.
The portfolio — made up of fully let properties all with leases of at least six years — was bought from Harbert European Real Estate Fund III, a trust advised by Harbert Management Corporation (Europe). Funding the purchase from its own resources, Segro expects to collect at least £3m in rent from all four warehouses totalling 571,500sq ft.
The deal includes three “big box” distribution premises located in the Midlands and a light industrial warehouse on a business park in Norfolk.
The two biggest warehouses are situated on Hams Hall Distribution Park at Coleshill, not far from both the M42 and M6 motorways at Birmingham and adjacent to a rail freight terminal. They are a 177,700sq ft logistics unit let to Exel Europe, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post, and a 160,400sq ft distribution hub leased to home appliance supplier Beko.
A third, 157,000sq ft warehouse at Grove Park in Leicestershire, is close to M1 and M69 motorway junctions, and is occupied by British Gas Holdings.
A second Deutsche Post off-shoot, Williams Lea Ltd, is also leasing the fourth building; a 76,000sq ft high-spec warehouse at Gateway 11 Business Park, on the outskirts of Norfolk.
“This transaction was a great opportunity to acquire four modern UK logistics warehouses in an off-market deal,” explained Segro’s chief investment officer, Phil Redding. “It meets our strategic objectives of increasing our presence in the UK logistics market through the acquisition of high-quality, income generating assets that offer the potential for growth.”
Segro is a London-based real estate investment trust (REIT) which owns or manages more than 57-million square feet of space with a combined worth exceeding £4bn. So far its key UK distribution investments have principally been concentrated within London’s Western Corridor, including the Thames Valley.
It also develops and owns warehouses — for around 1,250 client companies — in the UK, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. Earlier this month Segro completed the €472m (£373m) acquisition of a European industrial portfolio in a joint venture with Canadian pension investor, PSP Investments.
