Carlyle sells stake in Benelux JV self-storage to Safestore

Carlyle has divested its stake of 80% in self-storage assets in the Netherlands and Belgium as part of a joint venture (JV) with British self-storage group Safestore for an enterprise value of €146 million.

The joint venture was created in 2019 by Carlyle Europe Realty (CER), the pan-European real estate platform of Carlyle, to access the self-storage market of Benelux.

Frederic Vecchioli — Safestore CEO said: “Combining Safestore’s highly scalable operating platform and development experience with Carlyle’s investment expertise proved to be a successful partnership. We are now exploring further opportunities to work together.”

The portfolio is made up of 15 properties in Benelux totaling a maximum leasable area of 55,000 square meters. It is focused in the urban areas of Amsterdam and Brussels.

Carlyle sells stake in Benelux JV self-storage to Safestore. Photo courtesy of Safestore Holdings plc.

It was built via the acquisitions of a couple of Dutch self-storage operators — M3 Self-storage and Opslag XL and a Belgian self-storage operator called Lokabox, and one development in the Netherlands.

Marc-Antoine Bouyer — Managing Director on the CER advisory team of Carlyle said: “This transaction marks the culmination of a major acquisition and asset management effort through our joint venture with Safestore to assemble an institutional-quality self-storage portfolio of scale with exposure to prime cities in the Netherlands and Belgium.

“We believe that the market fundamentals for European self-storage remain highly attractive and look forward to working alongside Safestore in identifying further opportunities on the continent.”