Bahrain's GFH completes $123m sale of UK logistics asset

Roebuck Asset Management, British subsidiary of GFH, had acquired Accolade Park for $84m in 2017

Accolade Park is a logistics centre in the UK  located in Avonmouth. Courtesy GFH Financial Group

Bahrain’s GFH Financial Group completed an off-market sale of UK logistics property Accolade Park to Tritax Big Box Reit for $123 million through its local subsidiary.

Accolade Park is a logistics centre in the UK  located in Avonmouth.

Roebuck Asset Management, GFH's UK subsidiary, had acquired the 875,000 square feet property for $84m in 2017 on behalf of a consortium of institutional Korean investors.

The investors accrued more than 20 per cent internal rate of return in advance of target business plan, following "robust income and significant value increase", the group said on Saturday.

GFH has $12 billion of total assets and funds under management. In December, the company acquired Roebuck, which manages about £684m ($953.3m) worth of warehouse and logistics assets.

During the holding period on the logistics asset, Roebuck also completed a number of acquisitions with Korean and other Asian investors.

The company invested into "mission critical" logistics assets across Europe, including the supermarket retailer Tesco's Avonmouth distribution unit in the UK, which they acquired for $102m.

They also picked up the GP Logistics Centre in Spain for $96m, Amazon's fulfilment centre in the Czech Republic for $165m and Amazon's three last mile assets in Spain for $100m.

GFH has a majority stake in Roebuck, which continues to operate independently.

The Bahraini company and Roebuck are targeting "significant growth plans" for 2021 and are working on over €1bn worth of new third party mandates.

"The strategy to sell Accolade Park is in line with the Roebuck’s plans," said Nael Mustafa, board member and co-chief investment officer at GFH.

The company plans to announce "new transactions" in the European commercial real estate space, benefitting from positive trends in the sector, which is poised for growth, he added.

In February, GFH reported a 32 per cent drop in full-year profit as income from real estate, proprietary and co-investments dropped amid a coronavirus-induced economic slowdown.