04.08.2022

KanAm Grund Group: LEADING CITIES INVEST acquires another logistics property – first purchase in Austria

  • Logistics properties currently represent nearly 8 percent of the investment fund’s real estate assets
  • Long-term tenancy agreement in place with ‘Österreichische Post’ AG for last-mile logistics location Cross Dock Upper Austria 

KanAm Grund Group has acquired the last-mile logistics property Cross Dock Upper Austria for its open-ended real estate fund LEADING CITIES INVEST (ISIN: DE0006791825). The building is situated in the Austrian municipality of Enns, near the city of Linz, and offers almost 13,000 square meters of space. Seller is the Meir real estate group, headquartered in Austria. CBRE Austria assisted in closing the transaction as broker. The parties have agreed not to disclose the price of the deal.

The logistics property Cross Dock Upper Austria is located at Johanna-Hager-Strasse 2 in the Austrian town of Enns, Linz-Land district. Following the addition of the building, the LEADING CITIES INVEST fund’s logistics portfolio now consists of eight properties which account for nearly eight percent of the real estate assets. Cross Dock Upper Austria is the first Austrian property of the investment fund. The other seven logistics buildings are spread across central and northern Germany. 

In March of the current year, the open-ended retail real estate fund purchased the Lambda complex. The property of the type light industrial is located near Chemnitz in Germany. Long-term tenant is the long-established company Diamant Fahrradwerke GmbH. In order to benefit from the postive market environment in Switzerland, the European headquarters building of Chiquita, situated on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, were sold at the beginning of June. 

Transaction dynamics and high occupancy rate reflect the investment fund’s earnings power 
Sascha Schadly, Managing Director at KanAm Grund Group and fund manager of the LEADING CITIES INVEST, comments: ‘We are really very pleased that we were able to buy the Cross Dock Upper Austria building and to add another logitics property to the LEADING CITIES INVEST’s portfolio. Demand for logistics and industrial real estate continues to be high, and last-mile properties are particularly attractive. Investment in Austria provides a higher level of portfolio diversification. Linz is one of the three Austrian logistics hotspots, besides the cities of Vienna and Graz. Significant transaction dynamics and a high occupancy rate of currently 96.8 percent are evidence of the fund’s earnings power.’

Sustainable last-mile logistics property as an ideal addition to the investment fund portfolio 
The Cross Dock Upper Austria building was erected in 2019 to a very high standard of construction. Reinforced concrete was used in the foundation, columns, steel girders and fiber reinforced panels. The logistics center is rectangular in design, with loading bays on the long sides. The 99 bays (of which 67 are for trucks and 32 are for vans) allow for supply chain optimization. On the western side of the building there are offices with an internal ceiling height of 3 meters. The ceiling height in the storage space is 7.5 meters. On the eastern side, there is a covered area with 42 parking spaces for vans. In addition, there are 64 uncovered spaces for vans, 80 for cars and 10 for trucks. The property also has impressive credentials with regard to sustainability, with preparations made for charging stations at 24 truck parking spaces. Additionally, on the roof there is a photovoltaic system covering an area of around 11,000 square meters, which is operated by a third-party provider and sub-let. The building has a BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology) certification of Very Good, making it an ideal complement to the fund portfolio in terms of sustainability standards. There are now 21 properties in the LEADING CITIES INVEST, valued at around EUR 889 million in total, that are either certified or currently undergoing the certification process. This represents a certification rate of more than 76 percent based on the total real estate assets of the investment fund. Since the beginning of August, the LEADING CITIES INVEST meets the requirements of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) regarding client sustainability preferences. In addition to the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) characteristics Environmental and Governance, the strategic approach of the open-ended retail real estate fund takes account of a possible adverse impact of investment decisions on specific sustainability factors (‘Principal Adverse Impacts’ – ‘PAI’).

Ideal transport links for long-term tenant, Österreichische Post AG    
The last-mile location is the most sought-after subsector of the logistics market. The last mile refers to the last leg of the journey in the transportation of goods to the customer’s address. The long-term tenant of this last-mile logistics building is Österreichische Post AG, which is the leading logistics, post and parcel delivery service provider in Austria and is around 53 percent state-owned. Its proximity to the A1 – the busiest highway in Austria – makes it ideal for connecting to logistics networks both within the country and across Europe. It also has direct access to the Danube river, which opens up opportunities for water transport, and the site also has the infrastructure for freight transport by rail.      

Broadly diversified portfolio of the LEADING CITIES INVEST    
Following the new addition, the real estate portfolio of the LEADING CITIES INVEST consists of 42 properties at 27 locations in eleven countries. The investment universe includes commercial real estate for the most different types of use. The investment fund aims to highly diversify risk based on a broad range of locations, types of use and duration of tenancy agreements. Currently the focus is on office properties. Logistics real estate enhances the portfolio mix and optimizes the yield potential. Target group are retail investors with a medium to long investment horizon. 

To select promising real estate markets and individual properties, the KanAm Grund Group applies its in-house research and portfolio models C-Score and Property Selection Model (PSM). Both models are based on one another, and ensure central delivery of data on quality and expected performance for all transactions.

E+H Rechtsanwälte GmbH provided legal advice on the transaction to KanAm Grund Group and EHL Investment Consulting GmbH assisted the Group in commercial issues relating to the deal. Technical consulting services were offered by iC consulenten Ziviltechniker GesmbH.
 


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