South Korea invests in Spanish logistics property.

The latest addition to South Korea’s sovereign wealth fund is known as the Neptune portfolio and includes the sale-and-leaseback of Amazon logistic centres in suburbs of Barcelona, Paris and Bristol.

With this purchase, Korea Investment Corporation continues to boost its exposure to Amazon after having bought 3,100 more shares in the e-commerce giant during Q2 of 2019 to reach a stake of 331,396 shares worth over €600 million.

CBRE acted as advisor to the vendor which is understood to have received over €400 million for the properties reflecting a yield of around 3.8% for the French and Spanish assets and 4.25% for the one in Britain.

The online retailing giant has not shared details on pricing although market sources state the centre in El Prat del Llobregat (Barcelona) could exceed €170 million, a significant capital gain compared to the €30 million paid in 2015 by Amazon to Incasòl (the Catalonian regional government’s property entity).

The Spanish asset is located next to Barcelona Airport and is considered to be the e-tailer’s main hub in southern Europe with a GLA of over 150,000m². This marks K.I.C.’s first real estate investment in Spain in what Amazon describes as a regular transaction for the business which operates on the same rental basis in many locations across the globe.

The sovereign wealth fund has assets under management of over €119 billion, which makes it the fourteenth largest in the world, behind those of Norway, China, Abu Dhabi or Kuwait, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.