Warehouses have been popular with financial investors, especially since the pandemic.
(Photo: Reuters)
Frankfurt The US financial investor Blackstone continues its shopping spree at warehouses. According to financial circles, the holding company is acquiring 13 cold stores with a total area of 107,000 square meters in cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne.
The locations are operated by the refrigerated logistics company Nagel. However, the seller is another investor. The EUR 192 million transaction is part of Blackstone’s Core+ strategy, which focuses on investments in sectors such as logistics, while targeting longer maturities than typical private equity funds. In this area, Blackstone manages assets totaling US$116 billion worldwide.
Warehouses were popular with private equity firms like Blackstone and KKR even before the pandemic. Now they are even more popular. The number of people ordering online from home has increased dramatically. The supply chain issues triggered by the pandemic have also prompted some refocusing on warehousing.
“We are long-term investors in Germany and are proud to bring this high quality portfolio in key distribution centers to our growing strategy of income investing across Europe,” said a Blackstone spokesman. Logistics are still very popular.
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In November, Blackstone bought 124 logistics properties in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands from Cabot Properties for $2.8 billion. The biggest deal so far took place in 2019: Back then, Blackstone acquired the logistics properties of GLP in Singapore, whose most important tenant is Amazon, for almost 19 billion US dollars.
In Germany, Blackstone owns 340 logistics locations, 88 offices and 20 hotels in the commercial real estate sector. The investor also owns the German companies Office First, Leica and Schenck Process.
The Nagel Group, founded in 1935 and based in Versmold in East Westphalia, makes 100,000 deliveries a day with its 7,000 refrigerated trucks. The company employs 12,000 people who generate annual sales of 1.9 billion euros. Nagel is represented at 130 locations in Germany and neighboring countries.
More: High demand, low supply: The competition for logistics real estate is increasing.