KKR has bought phase one of TPG and Stoford’s Harlow Icon Park in Essex for £160m.
The four newly-built, grade-A logistics buildings, totalling 370,000 sq ft, were bought by Mirastar, the global investment firm’s industrial and logistics platform in Europe, from TPG and Stoford.
Tenants at Harlow Icon Park include Amazon, GSK and Wincanton.
Icon Industrial, a joint venture between Stoford and TPG, last year secured planning for phase two of the scheme, which will add 200,000 sq ft of grade-A warehouse stock, alongside a 112,000 sq ft speculatively-built warehouse.
Ian Williamson, managing director and head of core-plus real estate in Europe at KKR, said: “We are delighted to announce our first UK acquisition for KKR’s core-plus strategy for real estate. High-quality logistics assets are one of the main investment themes for our core-plus strategy in Europe and this marks the second successful transaction in just three months since the platform was launched last year. The combination of protection on the downside and optionality on the upside is compelling.”
It is the second deal completed by KKR’s pan-European core-plus strategy, following the acquisition of four freehold logistics assets totalling 500,000 sq ft in the Netherlands in January.
TPG sold the assets out of the TPG Real Estate platform, which invests across multiple strategies, including private equity, core-plus and commercial debt and has AUM of $13bn.
Michiel Celis, business unit partner at TPG Real Estate, said: “We, alongside our partner Stoford, acquired the site in 2018 and successfully developed this prime logistics park on time and on budget. The buildings all have strong ESG credentials and are fully let on long leases to a roster of high-quality tenants, including Amazon and Wincanton.”
As of Q4 2021, KKR Real Estate owned more than 17m sq ft of logistics assets across Spain, Italy, the UK, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
KKR was advised by Savills and Gerald Eve. TPG Real Estate was advised by DTRE and M1.
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