* Blackstone Group Inc., which has accumulated an €8 billion portfolio of warehouses and dark kitchens in Europe, created a separate company, dubbed Mileway, to hold properties linked with e-commerce, the Financial Times reported.
Mileway is now in possession of the largest European portfolio of so-called "last mile" properties, used by e-commerce giant Amazon, among others, the publication said.
The development is seen as a precursor to selling or listing the newly formed company in two years, the FT reported.
* French real estate investment trust Gecina and BNP Paribas Real Estate are scrapping their plans to develop the future athletes' village for the Paris 2024 Olympics, BusinessImmo reported, citing Agence France Presse.
Solideo, the body responsible for supervising the construction of the Olympic venues, previously selected the Gecina-BNP joint venture as one of the potential builders of the venue. The development will take place on two lots of land on the athletes' village in Saint-Ouen, representing over 100,000 square meters of future housing and offices.
Three groups remain in the running for the sites, with a nomination expected at the end of November, the publication said, citing Solideo.
* Brookfield Property Partners LP is in talks to acquire the 50% stake it does not already own in the £700 million London Wall Place office complex in London's financial district from co-owner Oxford Properties Group Inc., Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The recently completed property comprises two buildings, London Wall Place 1 and London Wall Place 2, of which the bigger building houses the global headquarters of Schroders PLC. The other building is leased to tenants including Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, R3, IFM Investors and Barnett Waddingham.
* Adler Real Estate AG agreed to acquire all shares in Israel-headquartered A.D.O. Group Ltd. for roughly €708 million, which will give it a 33% stake in Luxembourg-based ADO Properties SA. The transaction, which has a total value of about €970 million, will be funded using a combination of a rights issue, cash from sales of nonyielding assets and financial debt.
The combined real estate portfolio of Adler and ADO Properties is expected to create a pure-play German residential real estate company with a fully consolidated gross asset value of €9.4 billion.
ADO Properties is also in talks to separately sell about 5,800 residential units along with related commercial units and parking spaces.
* A Knight Frank report revealed central Scotland to be the country's top region for new care homes for the second year running, with Lothian and the Borders areas as joint second, Property Magazine International reported. Lothian, which includes Edinburgh, is estimated to see the most robust economic and elderly population growth within the country, while Borders has cheaper land costs but does not benefit from the same pool of wealthy older people.
As per the report, there was a net gain of 320 beds in Scotland in 2019, with over 1,000 additional beds planned or under construction.
UK and Ireland
* Legal & General Group PLC, on behalf of Legal & General Retirement, paid £243 million to acquire the 373,913-square-foot Quarry House office building in Leeds, U.K., from R20. The asset is leased to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government for 25 years on behalf of the U.K. Department for Work and Pensions.
* British REIT Segro PLC expanded its Greater London portfolio by £100 million, following off-market acquisitions in the towns of Dagenham and Croydon, as well as its July purchase of an eight-acre land in the city's Tottenham district.
According to a release, Segro purchased a 64,000-square-foot warehouse unit in Dagenham, via a sale and leaseback with Kuehne + Nagel, which signed a 10-year lease on the unit on Orion Park. In Croydon, the firm acquired two units on Greenland Way, comprising 176,556 square feet.
The company plans to build a new 185,000-square-foot urban logistics hub in Tottenham.
* Inland Homes PLC received planning consent for its flagship 100-acre Wilton Park site in Buckinghamshire, U.K., which will allow the builder to deliver 350 homes as well as commercial and community space on the site. The project has an estimated gross development value of £350 million.
A further part of the site is subject for development, which could provide up to 250 additional homes and 200,000 square feet of commercial space.
In addition, Inland said it exercised its put and call option agreement with a joint venture partner at Cheshunt Lakeside in Hertfordshire, U.K. The move will see Inland acquire its partner's 50% stake in Cheshunt Lakeside Developments Ltd. for £29.9 million. The acquisition is expected to be completed Sept. 30.
* According to propertyfundsworld, Savills Investment Management Inc. launched its European Logistics Fund 3, a fund designed to focus on investments in high-quality distribution centers and cross docks that can be used by third parties in Europe's core liquid logistics market.
At first close, two German institutional investors committed to invest a combined €122 million in the fund, which has a target investment volume of at least €600 million and a maximum debt ratio of 50%. The fund intends to deliver an annual income of at least 5%.
* Allianz Global Investors' Home Equity Income Strategy plans to raise an undisclosed amount from investors to support the launch of Wayhome, which offers homeowners a form of gradual homeownership without a mortgage in the U.K., IPE Real Assets reported.
Customers can purchase a property with a 5% deposit through Wayhome's model and then rent the rest of the property. Afterward, they can purchase more of the acquired property to reduce their rent.
Germany and Poland
* Whitbread PLC bought a three-property hotel portfolio totaling 482 rooms in Germany for an undisclosed sum, marking the U.K.-based company's second acquisition in Germany. The portfolio, sold by a private individual, comprises two leasehold hotels that are open and operating in Nuremburg and Munich, with Whitbread having the right to acquire the freeholds in seven and 13 years, respectively. A further leasehold hotel is under development in Stuttgart.
* Cushman & Wakefield analysts expect total office stock in the Polish city of Łódź to increase by 143,600 square meters by the end of 2020, Property Magazine International reported. Developers are likely to start projects in the city, which had total office stock amounting to 497,700 square meters at the end of June.
Nordic countries
* Vonovia SE agreed to buy a majority stake in Swedish residential company Hembla AB from funds advised by Blackstone Group, with the acquisition comprising 69.30% of the voting rights and 61.19% of the share capital in the Stockholm-based company. The total deal value is roughly 12.23 billion Swedish kronor.
Vonovia will pay 215 kronor per share, regardless of share class, reflecting an 11.5% premium to the closing price for Hembla's class B shares on Nasdaq Stockholm on Sept. 20.
* Finnish firms YIT and Ålandsbanken agreed to establish a housing investments company, which will invest in rental apartments, Property Magazine International reported. YIT will be responsible for letting the apartments and will hold a 40% stake in the joint investment, while Ålandsbanken will hold a 60% stake in the investments company and will be responsible for its management.
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