New York
CBRE Global Investors Reports Over $18.5 Billion in Private Real Assets Transactions in 2020, Including $12 Billion in Acquisitions
26 Apr 2021
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
Pam Barnett
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
CBRE Global Investors completed more than $18.5 billion in private real assets transactions globally in 2020, including more than $12 billion in acquisitions, during a year in which the firm raised more than $12.5 billion of capital overall for investment in real assets.
The acquisitions reflect a continued focus on logistics, residential and infrastructure assets, which are asset classes that have endured various economic cycles, but with nuances that reflect changes in structural and real assets trends. These trends include demand for specialty sectors, such as cold storage to support online food shopping; demand for larger residential space and suburban single-family rental housing due to changes in how people view their homes; demand for digital infrastructure to support increased data storage, processing power and bandwidth needs; and demand for healthcare assets to support aging populations. The acquisitions also reflect opportunities to invest in debt.
“As part of our cycle-aware investment strategies, we have always looked for the structural trends that we thought would drive real assets demand and be resilient in an economic downturn, which led us to focus on modern logistics and residential the past several years,” said Jeremy Plummer, Global CIO, CBRE Global Investors. “The pandemic has led us to further scrutinize those structural demand trends to see which ones are being accelerated and that we believe will drive future demand.”
Notable acquisitions in keeping with these key themes in 2020 included:
- Significant investment into European last-mile logistics portfolio
- Over 550,000-square-foot cold storage and distribution facility in Maryland
- Over 230,000 square feet worth of self-storage assets comprising more than 2,000 individual self-storage units in Arizona, Florida and New York
- 850,000-square-foot logistics development site in Japan
- Significant minority stake in a portfolio of 12 North American hyperscale data center campuses
- Residential portfolio of more than 900 Dutch rental properties, the majority of which are single-family houses and all of which have a green energy label
- Forward funding of a development of 245 affordable homes in London
$500 million investment in a biomed life science office portfolio in the U.S.
- More than 420,000-square-foot best-in-class laboratory/life sciences office building in Chicago
- Prime 230,000-square-foot Grade A office building in London
- Mixed-use scheme in Berlin consisting of 280,000 square feet of offices, residential and retail
- Investment in an acquisition loan for a 230,000-square-foot office building in New Jersey.
Dispositions totaled $6.3 billion as the firm selectively took advantage of buyer demand to benefit its clients.
Transaction activity by region was:
- Europe: $7.7 billion
- Americas: $6.2 billion
- Asia: $4.7 billion
About CBRE Global Investors
CBRE Global Investors is a global real assets investment management firm with $122.7 billion in assets under management* as of December 31, 2020. The firm sponsors investment programs across the risk/return spectrum for investors worldwide.
CBRE Global Investors is an independently operated affiliate of CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE). It harnesses the research, investment sourcing and other resources of the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2020 revenue) for the benefit of its investors. CBRE Group, Inc. has more than 100,000 employees serving clients in more than 100 countries. For more information about CBRE Global Investors, please visit www.cbreglobalinvestors.com
*Assets under management (AUM) refers to the fair market value of real assets-related investments with respect to which CBRE Global Investors provides, on a global basis, oversight, investment management services and other advice and which generally consist of investments in real assets; equity in funds and joint ventures; securities portfolios; operating companies and real assets-related loans. This AUM is intended principally to reflect the extent of CBRE Global Investors’ presence in the global real assets market, and its calculation of AUM may differ from the calculations of other asset managers.
The acquisitions reflect a continued focus on logistics, residential and infrastructure assets, which are asset classes that have endured various economic cycles, but with nuances that reflect changes in structural and real assets trends. These trends include demand for specialty sectors, such as cold storage to support online food shopping; demand for larger residential space and suburban single-family rental housing due to changes in how people view their homes; demand for digital infrastructure to support increased data storage, processing power and bandwidth needs; and demand for healthcare assets to support aging populations. The acquisitions also reflect opportunities to invest in debt.
“As part of our cycle-aware investment strategies, we have always looked for the structural trends that we thought would drive real assets demand and be resilient in an economic downturn, which led us to focus on modern logistics and residential the past several years,” said Jeremy Plummer, Global CIO, CBRE Global Investors. “The pandemic has led us to further scrutinize those structural demand trends to see which ones are being accelerated and that we believe will drive future demand.”
Notable acquisitions in keeping with these key themes in 2020 included:
- Significant investment into European last-mile logistics portfolio
- Over 550,000-square-foot cold storage and distribution facility in Maryland
- Over 230,000 square feet worth of self-storage assets comprising more than 2,000 individual self-storage units in Arizona, Florida and New York
- 850,000-square-foot logistics development site in Japan
- Significant minority stake in a portfolio of 12 North American hyperscale data center campuses
- Residential portfolio of more than 900 Dutch rental properties, the majority of which are single-family houses and all of which have a green energy label
- Forward funding of a development of 245 affordable homes in London
$500 million investment in a biomed life science office portfolio in the U.S.
- More than 420,000-square-foot best-in-class laboratory/life sciences office building in Chicago
- Prime 230,000-square-foot Grade A office building in London
- Mixed-use scheme in Berlin consisting of 280,000 square feet of offices, residential and retail
- Investment in an acquisition loan for a 230,000-square-foot office building in New Jersey.
Dispositions totaled $6.3 billion as the firm selectively took advantage of buyer demand to benefit its clients.
Transaction activity by region was:
- Europe: $7.7 billion
- Americas: $6.2 billion
- Asia: $4.7 billion
About CBRE Global Investors
CBRE Global Investors is a global real assets investment management firm with $122.7 billion in assets under management* as of December 31, 2020. The firm sponsors investment programs across the risk/return spectrum for investors worldwide.
CBRE Global Investors is an independently operated affiliate of CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE). It harnesses the research, investment sourcing and other resources of the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2020 revenue) for the benefit of its investors. CBRE Group, Inc. has more than 100,000 employees serving clients in more than 100 countries. For more information about CBRE Global Investors, please visit www.cbreglobalinvestors.com
*Assets under management (AUM) refers to the fair market value of real assets-related investments with respect to which CBRE Global Investors provides, on a global basis, oversight, investment management services and other advice and which generally consist of investments in real assets; equity in funds and joint ventures; securities portfolios; operating companies and real assets-related loans. This AUM is intended principally to reflect the extent of CBRE Global Investors’ presence in the global real assets market, and its calculation of AUM may differ from the calculations of other asset managers.