“Prelios once again confirms its role as a partner for international funds, with 80% of deals in the last three years closed off-market.”. Prelios Group General Manager Corporate and Business Development Luigi Aiello was commenting on the announcement by Hines, a global real estate firm, led in Italy by Senior Managing Director & Country Head Mario Abbadessa, of a binding agreement for an off-market investment through the Italian fund HEVF II Italy E managed by Prelios SGR on behalf of the HEVF 2 discretionary fund, to acquire 20 logistics assets. “The operation is for the acquisition of a portfolio of twenty logistics assets located in the regions of Emilia Romagna and Lombardy and the signing of a 15-year lease with the Snatt Logistica Group.”
The investment was completed on behalf of HEVF2, the Hines European Value Fund (HEVF 2) discretionary fund, which targets logistics assets in key locations in Europe. The portfolio of logistics assets provides a total of 200,000 square meters of logistics space around Milan, Parma, Reggio Emilia and Bologna. The properties are well-established strategic logistics centers with good rapid links to the main Italian and European cities. The transaction involves the acquisition of the real estate portfolio from four different corporate sellers and the simultaneous lease of the properties to the Snatt Logistica Group, a leading player in third-party logistics focused on the fashion industry.
“We are and will continue to be key players in the growth of the logistics sector with investments totaling more than 2 billion euro, including capex, and a similar investment amount in the pipeline,” added Luigi Aiello. “Prelios anticipated the trend and invested in the sector before others. We see huge opportunities for growth in the next few years in Italy, which has a sq.m stock per inhabitant still a long way behind the more mature European countries and low e-commerce penetration. We are at around 8%, well below the standards of other countries like the USA, or the UK or China, all of which stand at more than 20% on total overall spending.”