Axa Real Estate adds logistics unit as online retailing expands expansion
AXA REAL Estate Investment Managers yesterday launched a €100m (£70m) European logistics and industrial platform as it seeks to tap into the rise of online retailing.
The French firm said Baytree Logistics Properties will operate alongside its existing €1.8bn (£1.3bn) European logistics platform targeting speculative logistics buildings in prime locations across Europe. The new platform will be led by a team former Gazeley directors, the warehousing giant bought by Brookfield in 2013, with John Duggan as chairman.
The launch of Baytree, which already has a pipeline of £70m projects, comes less than a month after Axa bolstered its €8bn pipeline of developments by buying the stalled Pinnacle site at 22 Bishopsgate with developer Lipton Rogers.
Investor appetite for logistics assets is soaring, with around €7bn of new equity estimated to be targeting the sector, Duggan said in Cannes yesterday at the real estate industry’s MIPIM event.