London, UK – Global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) today announced that it has acquired a portfolio of self-storage assets operating under the myStorage brand, alongside UK self-storage operator Safestore (FTSE 250: SAFE).
The portfolio consists of 7 properties in Germany totalling 30,000 square meters of maximum leasable area. The assets are situated in key metropolitan areas in Germany, including Berlin, Stuttgart, Ulm, Nürnberg, and Mannheim.
Equity for the investment came from the Carlyle Europe Realty (CER), Carlyle’s pan-European real estate platform. In acquiring this portfolio, CER demonstrates its commitment to the European self-storage market which Carlyle believes continues to benefit from secular demographic and socioeconomic trends such as urbanization, increasing population densities, and increasing labor and student mobility, combined with relative undersupply.
Erik Orbach, Managing Director on the CER advisory team, said: “This acquisition re-establishes our presence in the European self-storage market, entering into the fragmented German market where the supply-demand gap is particularly pronounced. We are excited by the opportunity to continue working alongside Safestore to identify development and acquisition opportunities in this highly attractive market.”
Frederic Vecchioli, CEO of Safestore said: “Following our previous successful joint venture with Carlyle, we are delighted to have established a new joint venture in Germany which has acquired this institutional-quality self-storage portfolio located in prime cities across the country. Germany is one of Europe’s most under-penetrated self-storage markets and I look forward to growing our presence there.”
This acquisition of a self-storage portfolio in Germany follows CER’s sale of its 80% shareholding in a portfolio of self-storage assets in the Netherlands and Belgium to JV partner Safestore in March 2022, which had been assembled through a number of acquisitions and developments from 2019 onwards.
