(COPENHAGEN, DENMARK) – Hines, the international real estate firm, has acquired an urban logistics facility totaling 60,750 square meters in a prime strategic location in Denmark on behalf of its Hines European Core Fund (HECF), from a company managed by the Nordic Investment Bank Pareto Securities, for an undisclosed price.
Located in Greve, just 25 km from Copenhagen, Ventrupparken 3-5 is currently fully let on a long-term basis and is situated on a large parcel in the premier logistics location in Denmark with close proximity to the E20 highway. The destination is a magnet for key international tenants such as Flying Tiger, H&M, L'Oréal and Aldi, and others.
In addition, The Fehmarn Belt Tunnel, currently under construction, is due to be operational in 2028 and will further strengthen the area. This will become the world’s longest rail and highway tunnel (20km) linking Denmark and Northern Germany, reducing travel time between Copenhagen and Hamburg to just 2.5 hours, further propelling the site as a key logistics hub.
James Robson, Senior Managing Director – Nordics, at Hines, commented:
“We are very pleased with the acquisition of Ventrupparken 3-5. It’s rare to find a logistics asset and site of this scale in such a central location. The planned Fehmarn Belt Tunnel will provide even greater connectivity to the rest of Europe and will strengthen Copenhagen’s position as the preeminent logistics hub in the Nordics. Furthermore, this acquisition demonstrates our commitment and capability to source off market deals and we will continue to seek out opportunities, such as this, across the region.”
This acquisition marks HECF’s seventh logistics purchase, aligning with its ongoing strategy to increase exposure to urban logistics assets in key, centrally located, European locations with strong long-term growth prospects. It represents the latest in a string of logistic deals which include Wroclaw in Poland, and the assets in Heathrow and Dartford in the Greater London metropolitan area.
Simone Pozzato, Managing Director and Deputy HECF Fund Manager at Hines, said:
“We continue to broaden our exposure to the urban logistics and industrial sector, and this is a key asset for our fund’s logistics aggregation strategy. Ventrupparken 3-5 is situated in a prime urban location with strong market fundamentals and has a major tenant in place on a long lease which marries with our strategy of targeting supply constrained locations, in major European cities, with attractive long-term growth prospects.”
Last month, HECF was recognized by the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) as the best open-ended ESG fund globally adding to its Global Sector Leader recognition from Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB).
About Hines
Hines is a privately owned global real estate investment firm founded in 1957 with a presence in 240 cities in 27 countries. Hines oversees a portfolio of assets under management valued at approximately $160.9 billion¹, including $81.7 billion in assets under management for which Hines serves as investment manager, and $79.2 billion representing more than 172.9 million square feet of assets for which Hines provides third-party property-level services. Historically, Hines has developed, redeveloped or acquired approximately 1,450 properties, totaling over 485 million square feet. The firm has more than 180 developments currently underway around the world. With extensive experience in investments across the risk spectrum and all property types, and a pioneering commitment to ESG, Hines is one of the largest and most-respected real estate organizations in the world.
Since entering Europe in 1991, Hines has grown its European platform to include offices in 16 cities as well as a presence in 62 cities in 13 countries. Hines oversees a portfolio of assets under management valued at approximately €26.3 billion of assets under management in Europe, including €21.9 billion for which Hines serves as an investment manager and €4.4 billion representing more than 3.8 million square metres of assets for which Hines provides third-party property-level services, in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom.
1. Includes both the global Hines organization as well as RIA AUM as of December 31, 2020.
About Hines European Core Fund (HECF)
The Hines European Core Fund was set up in 2006 with the aim of providing investors with a resilient income profile derived from a diversified portfolio of high-quality assets located in inner-city locations across major European cities.
The Hines European Core has been awarded by MSCI as the strongest performing fund over the three years 2017-2019 among the European institutional balanced sector funds, with a total return of 8.45% p.a. during 2017-2019, 211 bps above the average return of the benchmark, making it one of the best performing core property funds in Europe.
As of Q4 2020 the HECF portfolio was 98.1% occupied with an aggregate fund value of c.€2.1bn. The portfolio of the Fund comprises 30 assets including forward commitments, invested in 15 city markets across nine different European countries.
