Oryx Real Estate Partners has acquired a five-acre logistics site in Milton Keynes for its UK logistics debut.
The Middle Eastern investment and asset management firm will work with Pembury Real Estate on the £25m-£30m logistics project. Pembury will act as development partner for the project.
The five-acre site is located around 3km from the A5 and has been acquired from distribution firm WH Barley, which is vacating the building. Oryx has bought the site on behalf of Middle Eastern clients, including Saudi Arabian family offices.
Oryx and Pembury plan to bring forward a 110,000 sq ft speculative urban logistics unit on the site and are targeting BREAAM Excellent and EPC A ratings. Plans have already been submitted.
Oryx said the deal aligned with its strategy of identifying suitable sites and developing well-located logistics facilities.
The firm said it had an investment pipeline of £300m of additional logistics sites, offices, residential blocks, and opportunistic distressed assets, with deals valued up to £50m in advanced stages of consideration.
Fawaz Sulaiman AlRajhi, chairman of Oryx, said: “After a period of being active in the logistics market, we exited our positions in 2020. Following the correction in land values over the past years and the continued potential of rental growth we believe it is an opportune time to re-enter the market.
“We value the UK real estate market highly due to its landlord-friendly legislation, longstanding international interest and with attractive opportunities arising due to liquidity requirements and growing distress. This sentiment is shared by our clients, and we look forward to continuing serving them across strategies and risk profiles.”
Johan Eriksson, managing partner at Oryx, added: “This acquisition is a deep value play in one of our core investment theses with compelling fundamentals, complimenting the income generation and value-add strategies we are also pursuing on behalf of our investors.
“Increased interest rates and economic headwinds have led to a decline in speculative development for logistics units which means that state-of-the-art, sustainable warehouse product suitable for a range of tenants will continue to command rental growth as operators commit to expanding distribution networks and nearshoring operations. Looking at our pipeline, we expect the near future to be busy given the opportunities available across various UK regions and real estate sectors.”
Oryx has been investing in other sectors of UK real estate since 2020 and has built a circa £180m portfolio.
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