Westbrooke Alternative Asset Management and Argo Real Estate, through the Westbrooke Argo Last Mile partnership, today announced the sale of two UK based last-mile logistics properties to Blackstone-owned St Modwen logistics. These assets form part of a wider £180m portfolio sale.
The properties, located in London and Manchester, operate as last-mile logistics facilities and are both leased to high quality tenants on the back of long dated leases.
With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant increase in demand for online shopping, the demand for last-mile logistics facilities in the UK has surged. This, along with the gradual re-opening of the UK economy on the back of a strong vaccine rollout programme, has driven a sharp upward swing in pricing for properties in the sector.
Westbrooke UK MD Richard Asherson notes “In partnership with Argo, we identified a dislocation in the last mile logistics sector. Given this, we secured these assets at conservative valuations and were able to achieve an attractive exit price, in line with our original investment thesis. I am pleased with the conclusion of this transaction and that we were able to deliver a superior return for our investors.”
Crispin Gandy, CEO of Argo Real Estate added “We’re delighted with the performance of these assets having achieved strong rent collections and both significant rental and capital growth despite the challenges presented by both Covid and Brexit. We’re looking to reinvest the proceeds and are considering a number of new opportunities”.
About Westbrooke Alternative Asset Management
Founded in 2004, Westbrooke invests and manages capital in multiple geographies on behalf of its shareholders and investors in private equity, venture capital, private debt, hybrid equity and real estate.
We manage significant shareholder and investor capital invested predominantly in SA, the UK and USA with offices in Johannesburg and London.
Westbrooke Alternative Asset Management was established as a multi-asset, multi-strategy manager of alternative investment funds and products structured to preserve and compound our clients’ wealth to cement their future prosperity.
Our team comprises experienced entrepreneurs and investment professionals who apply a broad range of experience and skills to deliver investment opportunities which offer a simple investable outcome – predictable, sustainable, risk managed long term returns for investors in an increasingly complex environment.
About Argo Real Estate
Argo Real Estate Limited is a niche and dynamic UK real estate investment company focused on delivering superior returns. Core to their philosophy is an intelligent, proactive and transparent approach always aligning their interest with partners and investors by co-investing.
Argo runs two distinct real estate platforms; The Argo Income Portfolio and opportunistic value-add transactions. Argo has an extensive international network and access to substantial capital for various types of investments.
