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Fortress, backed by the largest pension fund in Africa, is preparing the acquisition of the deposits accumulated by Globalworth in Romania. The transaction may become the largest ever signed in this niche.

The South African developer Fortress, whose main shareholder is the largest pension fund in Africa, is preparing the acquisition of the industrial-logistics portfolio accumulated by Globalworth in Romania, a transaction with a value of over 270 million euros, which may become the most expensive sale ever recorded in the industrial sector of the local real estate market, according to Profit.ro's real estate market sources. The buyer would go straight into the 3rd largest warehouse owner in the country. Before being presented here, the information was announced long before on Profit Insider Profit.ro organizes on November 9 the annual Povești cu Profit...made in Romania Gala, in which Romanian managers and companies are awarded Fortress entered a due diligence process (a thorough analysis of the business from a legal, financial, commercial, operational and technical point of view) to buy Globalworth's portfolio of 10 logistics properties, valued at 275 million euros, according to Profit.ro sources. Profit.ro sources say that the completion of the transaction could be pushed to 2024 because the approval of the Supreme National Defense Council (CSAT), required for transactions of over 2 million euros made by investors from outside the European Union, is required. Fortress shareholders are from South Africa.

The Globalworth warehouses have a cumulative area of 391,200 square meters, an occupancy rate of over 90% and generate an annual rent of 20.2 million euros. The logistics parks are located in Chitila, Ștefăneştii de Jos, Constanța, Arad, Oradea, Târgu Mureș, Pitesti and Timișoara. The projects in Chitila, Constanța and Târgu Mureș are carried out in partnership with the Romanian developer Global Vision. Among these properties is the Dacia warehouse in Oarja (Argeș), the largest distribution center for spare parts and accessories owned by the Renault Group outside of France and the largest center of this type in Eastern Europe. It should be noted that there are shareholding links between Fortress and Globalworth.

The main shareholders of Fortress are the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), the South African Government Employees Pension Fund, the largest pension fund in the whole of Africa. The PIC is the administrator of the GEPF. For its part, GEPF is a shareholder of Growthpoint, which owns 29.5% of Globalworth, and also owns more than 10% of MAS REI, an investor with intense activity in Romania, especially in the retail sector. Last but not least, Fortress is the main shareholder of NEPI Rockcastle, the largest real estate investor in Romania - by asset value. PIC is also a shareholder of NEPI.

Contacted by Profit.ro for details about the transaction with Globalworth, Steven Brown, CEO and shareholder of Fortress, stated that "Fortress will not comment on this, as it is based on rumors and speculation, but we are happy to discuss news regarding our developments from Central and Eastern Europe. For example, we recently started the construction of the Fortress Logistics Park Zabrze project (Poland), with an area of 77,000 square meters". Globalworth representatives did not want to comment on the information.

Fortress entered the Romanian real estate market directly in 2021 when it bought the Eli Park 1 logistics park in Chitila from Dragoș and Adrian Pavăl, the owners of Dedeman, and from the entrepreneur Ionuț Dumitrescu for the sum of 26.7 million euros. The area of the park is 50,130 square meters and its tenants include the companies Arctic, Decor Floor, Dentotal, Mobilier 1 and Euro Games Techonology. The current value of Fortress' local portfolio has reached 34.3 million euros, according to the company's latest financial report. The acquisition of Globalworth's logistics portfolio would raise Fortress directly to the 3rd place in the list of the largest warehouse owners in Romania, after CTP and WDP, with a total area of more than 440,000 square meters, as you can see in the infographic at the end of the article.

If it materializes, this transaction will become the largest ever signed on the industrial-logistics segment of the Romanian real estate market. The current record dates back to 2016 when the P3 platform was bought from the American fund TPG Real Estate and from its Canadian partner Ivanhoé Cambridge by the sovereign fund of the state of Singapore, GIC, which manages assets almost twice as valuable as Romania's GDP. against the amount of 2.4 billion euros, which marked the largest real estate transaction in Europe. The transaction also resonated in the Romanian market. The local value of the hill was estimated by real estate consultants at around 180 million euros. In Romania, P3 owns P3 Bucharest A1, which has an area of 380,000 square meters. Such a sale could swing the volume of transactions in commercial properties (offices, malls, warehouses and hotels), which fell sharply, by 43% in the first half of this year, to 183 million euros, marking the lowest level of the last 8 years. The annual evolution forecasts an even more negative situation, indicating a minimum of the last decade. Real estate brokers' bullish outlook for commercial property deals in the second part of this year is based on a number of large deals in the works which, if completed this year, could lift the annual volume to more than 600 million euros, a level in any case half of the historical record reached in 2022. The last year in which an investment volume of less than 600 million euros was recorded was 2013, the year that marked the end of the crisis period that began in 2008.

Source: https://www.romania-insider.com/ ； https://www.profit.ro/