London, UK, 19 August 2019, Safestore (FTSE250: SAFE) and global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) today announced the formation of a joint venture to acquire M3 Self Storage (M3). M3 currently has six stores in prime locations in Amsterdam and Haarlem totalling c. 25,700 sqm (c. 277,000 sq ft) of lettable space.
The Dutch self-storage market is the fourth largest in Europe with 303 stores and 9.6m sq ft of lettable space. In addition to the initial acquisition, the joint venture intends to expand its platform by investing in further development and acquisition opportunities.
The Carlyle Group will have an 80% shareholding in the joint venture via funds from Carlyle Europe Realty (CER), a €540 million pan-European real estate fund. Safestore will contribute the balance of the initial equity investment in the joint venture. [Additional financial terms were not disclosed.
Marc-Antoine Bouyer, Managing Director, Carlyle Europe Realty, said: “This joint venture combines the extensive global and regional insights, and investing experience of the Carlyle Europe Realty team, along with the specialist industry knowledge of the Safestore team, to create a flexible and scalable platform to explore opportunities in the self-storage market. We are pleased to have a recognised industry leader as our partner.”
Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer of Safestore said: “Since 2016, Safestore has successfully invested or committed c. £180m in 38 stores, acquisitions and new developments in its core markets of the UK and Paris.
Safestore has developed a multi-country highly scalable platform with a leading marketing and operational expertise in self-storage. The acquisition of M3 represents an excellent platform for entry into the attractive Dutch self-storage market and we expect that our joint venture with Carlyle Europe Realty will enable us to target additional selected development and acquisition opportunities.
We look forward to working with Carlyle, and to developing a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”
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Press Enquiries:
The Carlyle Group:
Catherine Armstrong
Tel: +44 (0) 207 894 1632
Email: catherine.armstrong@carlyle.com
Safestore:
Instinctif Partners
Guy Scarborough/Catherine Wickman 020 7457 2020
Safestore Holdings plc 020 8732 1500
About The Carlyle Group:
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across four business segments: Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $223 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2019, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,775 people in 33 offices across six continents.
Web: www.carlyle.com
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/OneCarlyle
Tweets: http://www.twitter.com/onecarlyle
Podcasts: http://www.carlyle.com/about-carlyle/market-commentary
About Safestore:
• Safestore is the UK’s largest self-storage group with 146 stores at 30 April 2019, comprising 119 wholly owned stores in the UK (including 67 in London and the South East with the remainder in key metropolitan areas such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Bristol) and 27 wholly owned stores in the Paris region.
• Safestore operates more self-storage sites inside the M25 and in central Paris than any competitor providing more proximity to customers in the wealthiest and densest UK and French markets.
• Safestore was founded in the UK in 1998. It acquired the French business “Une Pièce en Plus” (“UPP”) in 2004 which was founded in 1998 by the current Safestore Group CEO Frederic Vecchioli.
• Safestore has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2007. It entered the FTSE 250 index in October 2015.
• The Group provides storage to around 64,000 personal and business customers.
• As at 30 April 2019, Safestore had a maximum lettable area (“MLA”) of 6.37 million sq ft (excluding the expansion pipeline stores) of which 4.65 million sq ft was occupied.
• Safestore employs around 650 people in the UK and France.
