26th August 2019

– Capital commitment doubled, reflecting success of first venture
– Scope for further Apollo backing extends capacity for larger deals

London, 26 August 2019: Specialist retail sector investor Alteri Investors (“Alteri”) today announces the launch of its second investment vehicle, Alteri Investors II (“Alteri II”) with the backing of funds and accounts managed by affiiliates of Apollo Global Management, LLC (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, “Apollo,” and such funds and accounts, “Apollo Funds”) (NYSE: APO).

Alteri has developed an impressive track record since its launch in late 2014, as a joint venture between Apollo Funds and Alteri management. With in-house operational expertise and a remit to source investment opportunities across the European retail sector, Alteri has built a broad portfolio of businesses. It has had particular success in Germany, including CBR Fashion, one of Germany’s leading womenswear businesses, and leading multi-channel retailer Versandhaus Walz, which has successfully undergone a comprehensive turnaround. The UK’s leading rent-to-own specialist Brighthouse remains the other current investment within the existing portfolio. Exited investments cover a range of equity, debt and direct lending transactions across multiple retail sectors and Western European geographies, notably in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK.

Following Alteri’s successful first venture, Apollo Funds have committed more than double the amount of capital to Alteri II. Additionally, Alteri II may have access to additional funds to co-invest in larger transactions with funds managed by Apollo, enabling it to target businesses with sales of up to c.£3 billion. Alteri II will continue to invest in European retailers with sales in excess of £100 million, targeting a broad range of opportunities from performing businesses facing structural or stakeholder issues, to companies which require fundamental financial and operational transformation.

Alteri II is expected to expand the Alteri platform’s geographic footprint with greater emphasis on the Spanish and Italian markets, alongside its existing core markets of the UK, DACH, Benelux and Nordic regions.

Alteri Founder and CEO Gavin George stated, “We are extremely excited about the launch of our second investment vehicle. We believe that Alteri’s unique combination of financial firepower and retail expertise can help management teams unlock the potential in their businesses. With the European retail market going through a truly transformational period we believe the time is right to launch our second venture. With continued backing from Apollo Funds, we look forward to an even more successful future.”

Rob Ruberton, Apollo Partner and co-head of the firm’s Hybrid Value strategy, commented, “We are delighted with Alteri’s performance to date, which has exceeded our expectations and delivered over 2x returns on capital. Doubling our capital commitment underlines our confidence in Gavin and the Alteri team’s ability to source and execute profitable, downside-protected investments in the retail sector.”

About Alteri Investors

Alteri Investors is an operationally driven specialist investor, focused exclusively on the European retail sector. It was launched in November 2014, as a joint venture between Alteri’s management and funds managed by affiliates of leading alternative investment manager Apollo Global Management, LLC.

Retail sector expertise, a hands-on style and deep transformational skills lie at the heart of Alteri’s approach, enabling it to support management teams and optimise value creation. Alteri’s proven expertise is combined with access to substantial capital for investment. Alteri is based in Mayfair, London.

About Apollo

Apollo is a leading global alternative investment manager with offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, Bethesda, London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. Apollo had assets under management of approximately $303 billion as of March 31, 2019 in private equity, credit and real assets funds invested across a core group of nine industries where Apollo has considerable knowledge and resources. For more information about Apollo, please visit www.apollo.com.

Contact

Maitland/AMO

Clinton Manning
Sam Cartwright

020 7379 5151

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.