Fund Acquires Logistics Portfolio for $87M

FRANCE-Growing its business across Europe, Chicago-based Heitman has acquired a 1.9 million-sf industrial portfolio here for Euro 70 million ($87 million) on behalf of Crescent Euro Industrial II, a fund created with equity from both Heitman and an entity organized and sponsored by First Islamic Bank of Bahrain. Chris Merrill, managing director of Heitman’s international private equity group, declined to name the seller, however; other industry sources tell GlobeSt.com the biggest player in the selling entity was privately held Cargill Inc.

CEI-2, an expansion of the Crescent Euro Industrial fund established in 2002, was formed late last year with a target of acquiring Euro 300 million of new and refurbished industrial properties and portfolios leased to quality tenants in major and secondary locations in France, Germany and Italy. The purchase from Cargill was the fund’s first acquisition, and several more will close over the next several months. In December, Merrill told GlobeSt.com he expects returns in the “low to mid teens.”

The France portfolio consists of seven distribution logistics properties, six located in northern France and one in Avignon in the South of France. Two of the assets are larger than 400,000 sf and four of the six assets are 100% occupied on long-term leases by the French food retailer Carrefour. One of the properties is a recently constructed 500,000-sf building located in a newly developed logistics park in Northern Paris called Lagny-Le-Sec. The fund financed 75% of the purchase price. Aareal Bank provided the senior finance facility.