Case Study
June 14, 2017

Logistics Space Race

Eager to capitalize on the growing demand for state-of-the-art logistics properties, the pan-Nordic real estate investment manager NREP established a €1.1 billion long-term capital Nordic Real Estate Fund with an initial 49 properties covering over 1 million square meters, the largest modern logistics platform in the Nordic region.

Challenge

Established in 2005, NREP is a leading Nordic real estate investment firm focused on select segments of the Nordic market. The firm has €3.2 billion in assets under management and employs over 100 professionals across its offices in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo and Luxembourg. When NREP sought to establish a new firm in the competitive but promising logistics real estate market, they turned to Goodwin’s Real Estate Industry group.

Our Approach

NREP initially sought Goodwin’s advice on potential fund structures that could marry the long-term income-focused strategy sought by certain key investors in NREP ’s existing logistics funds with the closed-ended fund model more familiar to NREP and their other investor prospects. Building on our experiences of establishing NREP ’s €1.7 billion Nordic Strategies Fund II which closed November 2016 and of evergreen funds more generally, Goodwin attorneys worked with NREP to manage a complex, multi-lateral negotiation of these hybrid fund terms within the tight timetable dictated by the parallel restructuring of the fund’s initial portfolio. Investors include a number of prominent local pension funds as well as international institutional investors such as Allianz and Helaba Invest.

The Outcome

As the largest of its kind in the region, the fund will take a strategic, long-term approach to the Nordic logistics market and gradually grow the platform over time. The portfolio will be managed by NREP ’s logistics operating platform Logicenters, the largest manager and developer of modern logistics real estate in the Nordics.