M&As Drive Net Lease Deals for This Firm

Last year VN Net Lease Capital won the sale leaseback component of three merger and acquisition deals. Unfortunately, all three transactions fell through due to differing opinions of valuations or because the cost of financing changed the metrics of the deal. “It was like winning a contest and then finding out the contest had been called off,” Managing Member David Piasecki tells GlobeSt.com.

This year is shaping up to be different as the buyer seller gap narrows and firms become realistic about valuations and reach price discovery, he says.

In the last three to four weeks Piasecki has noted more M&A activity and more viable product coming to market. “I am moderately encouraged by that,” he says.

Piasecki will be participating in GlobeSt.com’s Net Lease conference being held in New York in about two weeks.

Piasecki hopes to do about $150 million in transactions this year and if the firm achieves that goal it will be in large part due to M&As and private equity re-entering the market. “They drive much of what we do,” he says.

The company focuses primarily on the industrial space and the growth of US manufacturing has also been a bright spot for BV Net Lease Capital. “They are not just stacking boxes. Raw materials are moving in, manufacturing is done in the middle and the product then moves out. We are seeing a lot of that.”

Currently the firm has a property under contract outside Chicago and it has made offers on three other deals and he believes BV Net Lease Capital  will be in the final two or three for the next round of offers. “We are trying to be very active in the market” before it slows down for the summer, Piasecki says.

Another area the firm wants to be active in is providing capital for build to suit, which is one of the foundations of its business model. But there has been virtually no activity in this niche for the last two years. Now, Piasecki says, he is starting to see some form of that activity but it’s nothing concrete. “Developers are still struggling with cost and delivery time of materials and don’t know how to price product without some contingencies.”

Net Lease Spring:

Held April 16-17 in NYC, Net Lease Spring will bring together hundreds of dealmakers from the nation’s top firms. This year’s program will feature 5.5 hours of face-to-face networking and over 5 hours of content focused on micro and macro trends for 2024, being resilient through market volatility, how to serve your corporate tenant clients and much more! Learn more or register here.