InfraRed Capital Partners completes acquisition of UK urban logistics portfolio

Last-mile acquisition adds to existing portfolio of assets located within short drive-times of key urban centres

InfraRed Capital Partners Limited (“InfraRed”), on behalf of the InfraRed Urban Logistics Income Fund (“IULIF”), has completed the acquisition of an eight asset urban logistics portfolio (“the Portfolio”) from NW1 Partners and Marchmont Investment Management for £50.8m.

IULIF targets high quality urban logistics assets located within a 20 minute drive-time of the UK’s top 10 city centres. The Fund is looking to capitalise on the growing imbalance between supply and demand for last-mile and urban servicing industrial assets in city fringe locations. This is the third acquisition for IULIF during the COVID-19 pandemic and represents further progress in the aggregation of an attractive income-focused portfolio for the benefit of the Fund’s investors.

The 261,000 sq ft portfolio includes six assets located within and around London’s M25 motorway, with the remaining two assets located in Manchester’s Trafford Park and Birmingham’s Fort Park. The largest tenants in the portfolio are DHL and Hermes, providing IULIF with further exposure to leading e-commerce and third-party logistics operators to complement its existing occupiers. The acquisition also improves the diversification and resilience of the Fund’s income profile.

Dean Harrison, Investment Director at InfraRed Capital Partners, commented:

“Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated changes in consumer shopping habits; driving the trend towards e-commerce related industrial space. This transaction is representative of InfraRed’s ongoing commitment to capturing the outperformance expected from the urban logistics sub-sector, and we expect that these assets will continue to benefit from strong occupational demand as this trend towards internet shopping continues. InfraRed is looking to expand its urban logistic holdings in the UK and Western Europe throughout 2021 with substantial capital remaining available for deployment.”

Knight Frank, Dentons, Ernst & Young, WSM and Paragon acted for InfraRed.

DTRE, Jones Day, Osborne Clarke and Malcolm Hollis acted for NW1 Partners and Marchmont Investment Management.