A S$22bn (£12.4bn) Singaporean state-backed investor is in advanced talks to make its European debut with the purchase of a UK logistics portfolio.
Fund manager Ascendas-Singbridge Group is set to pay in excess of £200m for Oxenwood Catalina’s Project Owl, having fought off fierce competition.
The portfolio is made up of 12 assets that Oxenwood Real Estate bought since it established its joint venture with Bermuda-based reinsurance and investment company Catalina Holdings in 2014 to take advantage of the growing occupational and investor demand for logistics.
Ascendas-Singbridge Group is 51:49 owned by Singaporean state-owned companies Temasek Holdings and JTC Corporation respectively.
It operates a series of listed and private funds, including Ascendas REIT, Singapore’s first and largest listed business space and industrial real estate investment trust which currently owns S$10.1bn of assets domestically and in Australia.
Ascendas follows in the footsteps of its fellow Singaporean state-backed sister companies GIC, Temasek Holdings and Mapletree into Europe.
GIC has already made substantial headway in the European logistics market with its €2.4bn (£2.1bn) 2016 purchase of P3, while Mapletree and Temasek came close to buying both Logicor, which was sold by Blackstone to CIC for €12.25bn last year and Gazeley, which was sold by Brookfield to GLP also last year for €2.4bn.
Ascendas-Singbridge is understood to have been long assessing an entry into the European market and has also been running the rule over platform and fund management businesses.
However, the deal for the Oxenwood Catalina portfolio is for the assets alone rather than for the Oxenwood business more broadly.
Established by former LondonMetric directors Stewart Little and Jeremy Bishop in 2014, Oxenwood also operates a joint venture with Canadian investor AimCo, which last year bought Lone Star’s £286m Ultrabox UK portfolio as well as having a growing portfolio in Germany, where it entered the market last year backed by Catalina.
Investment into the UK logistics sector continues to surge with record pricing being achieved as buyers pile in on the back of fundamental occupational demand shifts brought about by online retailers and last-mile delivery.
In 2017, investment in UK industrial property reached £11bn, an 80% increase on 2016 levels, which was also 50% more than the sector’s previous peak in 2014, according to research from Knight Frank.
Oxenwood Catalina is being advised by DTRE and Ascendas is being advised by Colliers International.
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