Ares has gone under offer to buy Project Olympian, a portfolio of industrial assets in the UK being sold by ACRE Capital Real Estate for Marchmont Investment Management for close to £50 million or a 5% yield, CoStar News understands.
The 5% yield is understood to be significantly tighter than the 5.5% reflected by the guide price after strong bidding, evidence again of investors returning to UK industrial investment. DTZ Investors yesterday confirmed it had sold Western Avenue Business Park to Prologis for a price understood to be £125 million, ahead of the £110 million guide price.
The Olympian portfolio is understood include multilet estates at Oliver Close, Thurrock; Lovet Road, Harlow; Hart Street Commercial Centre, Maidstone; and Blochairn Industrial Estate, Glasgow.
Established in 2011, Marchmont has £750 million of gross assets under management. In July it teamed up with French private equity investor BauMont Real Estate Capital to buy an 80,000-square-foot distribution hub, Stihl GB’s former base on Stanhope Road, Camberley, with vacant possession. In 2021 it joined forces with Pictet Alternative Advisors to buy the Titan portfolio of 16 industrial assets across the UK, with a total floor area of 1,797,497 square feet for £132 million.
US private equity group Ares Management has been one of the most active investors in UK real estate recently.
It is understood to have seen off strong bidding from parties including Kajima and Legal & General, to secure exclusivity to buy Times Place, 45 Pall Mall, a 59,712-square-foot trophy office in London's St James's from JP Morgan Asset Management for more than the £135 million guide price.
JLL had been mandated on the sale, with the guide price reflecting a 4.34% net initial yield and a capital value of £2,261 per square foot.
Ares is understood to have ended talks to buy Schomberg House, also on Pall Mall close to Buckingham Palace in London's West End, for around £50 million, from Swiss Investor AFIAA.
But this year it has completed its acquisition of the majority of Shaftesbury Capital’s Charlotte Street "Lifestyle" portfolio in London's Fitzrovia for £60.5 million or a 5.56% net initial yield. It has also bought the long leasehold interest in 25 Charterhouse Square, EC1 on behalf of one of its real estate funds, from Helical for £43.5 million.
At the beginning of the year Royal London Asset Management Property sold a 1.2 million-square-foot portfolio of industrial and logistics assets to Ares Management Real Estate funds for around £200 million and in May it bought a £400 million UK hotels portfolio from Landsec.
The parties declined to comment.