Bids were due in on Thursday for Palm Capital’s Copenhagen airport logistics facility, which the company acquired in 2018.
The property compromises 28,000 m2 of space with tenants including DHL and Postnord. It is understood Palm has appointed CBRE’s local office in Denmark to advise on the exit with a guide price of around €80 mln.
It is London-based Palm’s only property in the country. The prime logistics facility provides services to the Copenhagen and Malmo metro areas. By car, Copenhagen can be reached within 75 minutes and Malmo within 90 minutes.
Copenhagen airport is used by global logistic providers as the Nordic hub and it has been ranked as the top 5 logistics regions in Europe.
In 2018 – the same year as Palm’s acquisition - the government revealed plans to double the size of its national airport.
The airport says it is expanding its terminal building by 80,000 m2 in what it has called its biggest ever construction project.
Denmark was ranked third on distribution infrastructure in the world by IMD in 2018. Several projects are on the way to improve the highways, including Fehmarn Belt Tunnel that will link Denmark to Germany. Travel time between Copenhagen and mainland Europe will be reduced from 4 hours to 2.5 hours.
The main hubs in Denmark are Copenhagen Airport and Copenhagen Malmo Port. The vast majority of Scandinavian consumers can be reached the same day and when including the Baltic States, more than 70 mln consumers can be reached overnight.
Palm is a private equity real estate firm that was founded Reda Khatim, former founding principal of Citigroup Property Investors European opportunistic fund, a €1.2bn pan European vehicle. He previously worked with Lonestar Funds in Europe and held various positions at Credit Suisse and Lazard.
The company is not the only overseas investor to have invested in last mile logistics in Denmark of late. In September 2020, Blackbrook Capital acquired an asset near Copenhagen majority leased to logistics firm, Danske Fragtmænd.
Announcing that deal, co-founder and CEO of Blackbrook, Arvi Luoma, said: ‘Denmark’s industrial real estate landscape has many attractive fundamentals. There is a significant supply and demand imbalance for quality logistics assets, including last-mile facilities. With increasing e-commerce penetration, tenant requirements for modern and eco-friendly real estate, and generally constrained opportunities to develop new sites, we expect the Danish market to experience both robust rental growth and asset value appreciation over the long-term.’
