NEWS
International
90 North makes presence felt
in Europe with brace of deals
9 James Caan’s Sharia-compliant investment specialist snaps up warehouses in Germany and Norway
BY GUY MONTAGUE-JONES AND
HANNAH BRENTON
James Caan-backed company 90 North
has made its first foray into continental
Europe, buying warehouses in Germany
and Norway in deals totalling €84m
(£66m).
90 North, which buys real estate on
behalf of Middle East investors, has
bought a 280,000 sq ft warehouse in
Oslo, Norway, which is let to electrical
wholesaler Onninen, for €36m (£28m).
The Sharia-compliant investment
specialist has also acquired a 1.12m sq ft
warehouse near Kassel, Germany, for
€48m (£38m). The site is leased to
Rudolph Automotive Logistik on a
10-year lease.
90 North co-founder Nick Judd
said the property adviser was hiring more
staff and planned to seek out more deals
in Europe, particularly in the Nordic
countries and Germany, but also in other
territories, including Spain and Italy.
“We are very keen to look at similar
opportunities where the property is
newly built, well let and preferably with
fixed annual indexation,” said Judd.
Look North: company founders Nick Judd
(left) and Philip Churchill
90 North is also looking to expand in
the US, where it has set up an office and
completed its first deals in recent
months. The company acquired the FBI’s
regional headquarters in Denver,
Colorado, in July for $70m (£45m), then
bought the 351,425 sq ft divisional HQ of
the Continental Group in Chicago.
90 North, which was founded in
November 2011 by Judd and Philip
Churchill, has completed 14 deals to date
with a combined value of almost £500m
(£332m). In the UK, it has invested in
student housing, residential, industrial,
retail and offices. This summer, it
acquired the 11-acre Crossharbour
residential development in London’s Isle
of Dogs, which has planning permission
for 850 flats and a gross development
value of €420m (£332m).
90 North’s chairman is James Caan, of
TV show Dragons’ Den, who provides 90
North with financial backing, allowing it
to co-invest in all its deals.
CBRE fund snaps up Warsaw park Knight Frank names Dubai scheme
A fund managed by CBRE
Global Investors has
bought an office business park in Warsaw for
around €32m (£25.2m).
12
The purchase from an
investment fund
managed by BPH
Towarzystwo Funduszy
Inwestycyjnych is CBRE
12|12|14
Global Investor’s third in
the area in the past two
years.
The Ideal Idea park
(pictured) is located in
zone one of Warsaw’s
logistic market and
comprises around
111,945 sq ft of office
space and 217,400 sq ft
of warehouse space.
It has 14 tenants
including Solid Group,
Wincor-Nixdorf and
Baltona.
Linklaters, CBRE
Building Consultancy
and EY advised CBRE
Global Investors. DTZ
and Jara & Partners
advised BPH TFI.
as highest-value asset in the world
The Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZ) in Dubai
(pictured right) has become the
highest-value single property asset in
the world, according to a new valuation
by Knight Frank Dubai.
The company has put a price tag of
more than $4.5bn (£2.9bn) on the 613m
sq ft business and industrial scheme, in a
valuation undertaken as part of the
planned acquisition of developer
Economic Zones World (EZW) by port
operator DP World.
JAFZ, which enjoys special tax status,
is set around Jebel Ali Port and extends to
22 square miles in area. The property
comprises 14,000 tenancies, 345m sq ft
of land, more than 1,000 warehouses,
more than 2m sq ft of office space, as
well as 9,000 rooms of worker
accommodation, a hotel and convention
centre, showrooms and retail assets.
Stephen Flanagan, partner in the
commercial valuations team at Knight
Frank, said: “It is our understanding that
the Jebel Ali instruction represents the
largest valuation ever undertaken by
Knight Frank globally of a single asset
having a value of over US$4.5bn.”
propertyweek.com