Global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) today announced that it has acquired six distribution logistics assets in The Netherlands.
The assets are situated in key metropolitan areas in the Netherlands, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven, and are highly complementary to Carlyle’s existing distribution logistics portfolio in Europe.
Equity for the investment came from the Carlyle Europe Realty (CER) platform, Carlyle’s pan-European real estate strategy. These acquisitions increase the scale of the platform and continue to extend its exposure to the distribution logistics market in Benelux, a core part of its investment strategy in Europe.
The European logistics market, a broad area of focus for CER since 2016, has experienced a surge in growth in recent years. There has been an increased shift towards e-commerce as a result of the Covid-19 disruption, accelerating demand for prime distribution logistics space in established metropolitan hubs.
Calibre Asset Management has partnered with Carlyle in this transaction, as it has done since Carlyle entered the Dutch logistics market in 2021, and will provide origination and asset management services for this and future logistics acquisitions in Benelux. Calibre Asset Management also recently partnered with Profound Asset Management, the Dutch real estate firm, and will now service its clients from Profound’s platform, and look to benefit from its broad market presence and extensive network.
Erik Orbach, Director on the Carlyle Europe Realty advisory team, said: “We are delighted to increase our exposure to the logistics market in Benelux, a well-established market for prime distribution logistics assets. The acquisition of these assets is aligned with CER’s focus of identifying distribution logistics opportunities that are strategically located close to major urban hubs.”
Tijs Derison, founder of Calibre Asset Management, said: “We are delighted to have supported Carlyle again with the expansion of its urban logistics platform in the Netherlands. We are excited to be working alongside Carlyle as we actively identify further distribution logistics opportunities in the region. Our partnership with Profound Asset Management has been established to strengthen our asset management services in support of Carlyle’s logistics strategy in Benelux.”
This acquisition follows the sale of CER’s self-storage platform in Benelux in March 2022, and also follows the acquisition of 31 logistics assets across 15 transactions outside of the Netherlands, in the U.K, France and Germany, representing an active beginning of the year for Carlyle’s European Real Estate platform.
