Kajima Properties, Savills Investment Management Launch Strategic Partnership

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Kajima Properties Europe and Savills Investment Management are targeting growing Asian investor interest in Europe’s fast-growing e-commerce sector and have launched a new strategic partnership beginning with the acquisition of Panattoni Europe’s interest in a central Poland logistics park.

READ ALSO: LaSalle Investment Management Buys Logistics Portfolio in Poland

The acquisition of the 1.6 million-square-foot Łódź City VI logistics park in central Poland, also marks a renewed commitment by Kajima, a leading property investor, developer and asset manager, to expand its logistics assets under management in Europe. In January, Kajima sold two industrial assets in Komorniki, Poznan, also in Poland, to clients of Savills Investment Management. Elsewhere in Europe, Kajima also acquired its first warehouse and logistics park in Spain in May and recently acquired a logistics site in Rotterdam, a major port city in the Netherlands.

John Harcourt, managing director, Kajima Properties Europe, said in a prepared statement Kajima has been investing in European logistics for more than four years but is now actively looking at a longer-term strategy of identifying and acquiring a diversified range of logistics assets. He noted they have already identified a number of opportunities to grow this part of the firm’s business and is looking to partnerships among Asian investors to make the deals that will provide the stable returns offered by the sector and region.

Jon Crossfield, head of strategic partnerships at global real estate investment manager Savills Investment Management, cited SIM’s track record in the European logistics sector, which now has more than €4 billion, or nearly $5 billion, in assets under management. He said in prepared remarks the firm’s AUM combined with Kajima’s ability to develop high quality assets across Europe offers an exciting opportunity for SIM clients.

In the partnership’s first deal in Central Poland, Dentons advised Kajima. DLA Piper and Savills advised SIM and Greenberg Traurig advised Panattoni.

Active market

Kajima noted the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the rapid growth of e-commerce in Europe, creating continued demand for logistics and distribution hubs across the continent. The firm stated Poland has seen warehouse assets worth €1.46 billion, about $1.73 billion, change hands in the first quarter of 2020, close to the 2019 total of €1.48 billion, or about $1.75 billion. JLL reported Asian capital sources accounted for about one-third of the 2019 transactions.

Last week, LaSalle Investment Management, acting on behalf of the LaSalle E-REGI fund, announced it had acquired a portfolio of two Class A logistics parks in Warsaw, Poland, from Panattoni Europe and Marvipol Development €30 million, or approximately $35.4 million. The assets, classified as last-mile properties, totaled nearly 270,000 square feet. Panattoni Europe, the largest logistics developer in Europe, built the City Logistics Warsaw Airport and City Logistics Warsaw II last year. Both are fully leased to a mix of tenants.