SSP's Mohammed Al-Hassan and Pankaj Gupta announce GII acquisition of Amazon logistics centres f
DUBAI: December 27, 2017
Two members on the global advisory board of Strategic Swiss Partners, who are co-founders/CEO of Gulf Islamic Investments (GII) LLC, have announced the acquisition of two logistics centres for Amazon for US$144 million.
The acquisition by GII, handled by Mohammad Al Hassan and Pankaj Gupta on behalf of its investors, covers nearly one million square feet, and is located in Dortmund, Germany.
The two state-of-the-art Grade A facilities serve as Amazon’s key logistics centres supplying goods to 29 other facilities. The facilities are leased to Amazon on a long-term unbreakable lease with regular rental uplifts linked to Germany CPI.
Speaking about the acquisition, Mohammed Al-Hassan, said, “GII’s real estate investment strategy is to have exposure to good yielding commercial assets with investment grade tenants. We believe this transaction perfectly matches our investment strategy.”
He added, “Dortmund offers a strategic location for a high-growth market and is one of the most important logistics hubs in the whole of Europe. Germany also produces about one-quarter of the EU's GDP, with investment safety rates and remarkable returns”.
Alhassan also confirmed that GII plans to keep acquiring high quality income-yielding real estate assets in the US, UK and Germany and to invest selectively in attractive value-add development opportunities in the GCC region.
Pankaj Gupta meanwhile said, “The property marks the fifth international real estate asset acquired by GII in the last two years and the first in Germany.
"We see this transaction as an extremely suitable investment for our clients in these challenging investment environments as it not only gives a high single digit cash-on-cash yield but also very strong lease covenants with a marquee tenant like Amazon in a stable geography like Germany.
"The investment further establishes GII's capabilities of providing whole value-chain services and hence offering best-in-class opportunities."
With this latest transaction, total investments of GII in the European market crosses US$500 million, while the value of the investment portfolio exceeds US$1.3 billion.
GII is an UAE-based financial services company regulated by the Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (ESCA). It is committed to providing advisory services to a diverse set of unique and well-structured investment opportunities to its clients, with a view to achieve superior returns in the fields of real estate, private equity, venture capital and infrastructure. Under the leadership of a committed group of prominent shareholders and investors, GII’s team enjoys a track record of managing US$2.5 billion in assets and securing US$5.5 billion in debt. GII has its origins in UNFC, that was established in 2004 and rebranded in May 2014.
