First-time instruction for Kirkland in €2.4bn purchase
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised on two of the largest European real estate transactions of 2016 as The Blackstone Group purchased a property portfolio from German real estate group IVG Immobilien for €3.3bn while Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC picked up warehouse company P3 Logistic Parks from TPG Real Estate for €2.4bn.
In November, the Magic Circle firm advised IVG on the sale of its 97-property portfolio, OfficeFirst, in what was the largest European real estate transaction of the year. Freshfields’ team, based in Germany, included partner Wessel Heukamp, real estate partner Timo Elsner and tax partner Christian Sistermann. Hengeler Mueller advised Blackstone, with a team including M&A partner Thomas Müller, while Kirkland & Ellis advised IVG’s major shareholders.
In the same month, Freshfields also advised TPG on the sale of P3 to GIC. The team was led by real estate partner and co-head of sovereign wealth funds Alex Watt (pictured), corporate partner Patrick Ko and finance partner David Trott.
Representing the wealth fund for the first time, Kirkland advised GIC with a team including London corporate partners Matthew Elliott and Celyn Evans, debt finance partner Michael Steele, competition partner Paula Riedel and tax partners Jonathan Kandel and Frixos Hatjantonas.
Watt said: ‘We started work on this when TPG acquired P3 in 2013, which was its initial investment followed by various bolt-ons. At the beginning of this year we started working on the disposal as well as a pre-sale refinancing. We got to work on the sale side around three months ago.’
He added: ‘There will be more deals of this type. Because of e-tailing and the increased demand from consumers to deliver quicker and quicker, there has been an increased demand for logistics warehouse space. As a result, we’ve not only seen some yield compression, which has made this deal particularly successful for TPG, but we’re also seeing many more of these really big portfolios become available because there’s been a lot more consolidation in the sector.’
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk