Employees Provident Fund (EPF), a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, has entered the Dutch market with the acquisition of three distribution centres from a local family-owned company for €77 mln.
The three centres comprise a total 100,000 m2 and were purchased from private investor-developer HVBM. Two of the warehouses are located in Breda in the south of the country while the third asset is situated in Venlo close to the German border.
The transaction, billed as the biggest logistics portfolio deal so far this year in the Netherlands, was carried out through Savills Investment Management. The purchase price reportedly reflected a gross initial yield of around 5.7%, which market experts say is very tight for the Dutch market. Some observers say that given the current strong demand for the sector, it is a question of time before yields of 5% are achieved.
All three centres in the latest deal were developed on a build-to-suit basis by HVBM Group. The assets in Breda are let on a long-term basis to tenants including Zimmer Biomet, while the bulk of the Venlo property is leased to Biesheuvel Techniek with around one-third of the space occupied by Janssen Distribution Services.
DTZ Zadelhoff and Swisslake acted for HVBM on the transaction. EPF (via Savills IM) was advised by JLL and Savills Building and Project Consultancy, with Loyens & Loeff acting on the legal side.