M&G Real Estate Announces £140 million Off Market Industrial Acquisition from Europa Capital / M7

London, 3 December 2013 – M&G Real Estate today announces the acquisition of two portfolios comprising 46 high yielding multi-let light industrial estates from Europa Capital/M7 Real Estate Joint Ventures for £140 million.

The two portfolios comprise 699 individual units, with a combined floor area of approximately 4 million square feet, on 302 acres and an average estate size of 87,000 sq ft. Located in England, Scotland and Wales, the majority of properties are situated near or within major conurbations and within close vicinity to major road networks.

Given the specialist and highly management intensive nature of the multi-let industrial sub sector, a scalable platform has been created in conjunction with M7 Real Estate, who will retain the asset management brief.

Commenting, Adam Coulston, Director, Investment Management at M&G Real Estate, says: “One of the great attractions of the multi-let industrial sector is the potential for resilient income streams due to a diverse tenant base. With the increasingly positive signs of growth in the UK economy, expectations of stronger occupational demand, and the continued squeeze on supply, we feel acquisitions of this nature and at this point in the cycle, best represent the needs of our investors.”

Callum Thorneycroft, Associate Director, Europa Capital, adds: “This sale represents the culmination of a strategy initiated four years ago with M7. The strategy to accumulate portfolios of multi-let light industrial assets with a specialised joint venture and asset management partner, at a time when this sector was largely ignored, has successfully been executed.”

M&G Real Estate currently has £1.74 billion* of industrial and warehouse property under management, equating to 26,000,000 sq ft.

Deloitte Real Estate represented M&G Real Estate in this transaction.