Pan-European urban logistics platform Crossbay has purchased a €60m last mile logistics portfolio in France in an off-market transaction.
The 50,000 sqm portfolio is situated in prime infill locations in core French cities, including Paris, Lyon, Nantes and Orleans.
“The successful off-market acquisition of a prime last mile logistics portfolio in the middle of a pandemic is a real testament to the strength and capabilities of Crossbay’s France team,” said Marco Riva, head of Crossbay and logistics at MARK.
READ ALSO : M7 sells logistics property near Hamburg
“We have invested heavily in creating a genuinely pan-European network of on-the-ground teams who are able to source attractive opportunities like these and following our successful capital raise last year and the debt facility with Citi, we are looking to grow Crossbay’s footprint in core western European markets such as France,” he added.
In December, MARK announced a capital raise for Crossbay, securing €550m in equity commitments from a global range of investors. Investors included the Townsend Group, CBRE GI, Credit Suisse, Nuveen and QInvest LLC.
The fundraise was followed by a €400m debt facility from investment bank Citi in January to help further fund the platform’s growth and expansion.
The last mile logistics sector has seen accelerated growth as a result of Covid-19, with repeated lockdowns introducing new demographics to online shopping.
In Europe’s five largest economies – France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Spain, which are all countries where Crossbay has a presence – the combined value of online sales is expected to exceed €345bn by 2023 according to Mintel.
In Western Europe more widely, online sales are expected to make up 15.6 percent of total sales by 2023 according to GlobalData. This is up from just 9.7 per cent in 2019.
