The Accolade Fund has boosted its industrial property portfolio to more than 400,000 square metres worth 7 billion crowns

“Less than four years after inception, the Accolade Fund is the quickest-growing industrial property owner in the region,” says Milan Kratina, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Accolade Industrial Fund. “Just for comparison: at the beginning of 2017, the Fund had a property portfolio of 128,000 square metres of leasable area. Today, taking into account the transactions currently in progress, the total area of industrial property to be owned by the Fund is 404,000 square metres and their total value is EUR 274,400,000 euros,” adds Kratina.

More than four hundred persons, including business owners, top managers, consultancy partners, lawyers, family offices or other funds are currently investing through the Fund.  Almost 2.5 billion crowns has already been invested in the Fund; as much as 1.25 billion crowns was invested last year alone.  The value of investors’ shares grew 14,1 % and 17,86 % in crowns and in euros, respectively. 

The latest addition to the Fund’s property portfolio is a building 26,564 square metres in size at Ostrov near Stříbro, which is fully leased to KION. KION operates there one of the world’s most advanced engineering plants, manufacturing robotic equipment for automated warehouses. For some time already, KION has also been the tenant in another building, where it makes logistic trucks. The two buildings stand next to each other, and the lease contracts for each of them were signed for 15 years.

The Fund is currently completing the purchase of 32,000 square metres in the Cheb industrial zone to accommodate the expanding operations in the directly adjoining building already standing there, also owned by the Fund. The existing building is leased to DHL, which uses it as a distribution centre for Estée Lauder cosmetics and a distribution and servicing base for the Sky Deutschland satellite television. Of the new purchase, the Sky Deutschland centre will share 2,000 square metres and the Estée Lauder distribution centre the remaining 30,000 square metres.

The way the Fund’s buildings are constructed and operated ensures that energy and water consumption and waste generation are as low as possible. The buildings are friendly to the environment and to the people working there, as evidenced by the BREEAM “Very Good” grade. The latest-acquired property for the DHL distribution centre has an “Excellent” grade BREEAM Certificate, thanks to an agreement with the tenant on how to operate the building.  

Last year the Fund also purchased the second largest industrial building for lease that has ever been built in Czechia. The building, 73,000 square metres in size, stands in Cheb and is leased to Tchibo to store clothing and accessories for its online shop. In addition, the Fund acquired an 11,000 square metre building at Pavlov, thus entering the logistics market in Prague. In Poland, the Fund has invested in industrial parks in Lublin, Szczecin and Bydgoszcz.

Accolade Fund’s largest tenants include the mechanical engineering group KION, which makes logistic robots and warehouse trucks at Ostrov near Stříbro, and clients in Cheb include Tchibo and, for example, the DHL logistic company with its distribution centres for Sky Deutschland TV and for Estée Lauder cosmetics. The Fund’s major clients in Poland are Oponeo, the largest Polish seller of tyres and rims, Pierce, the biggest Swedish online seller of motorbike parts and accessories, or Eurocash, one of the largest Polish fast-moving consumer goods dealers, which is also a significant shareholder of Stock Plzeň.

On the whole, around one-third of the Fund’s real estate portfolio is leased to logistic companies, one-third to manufacturing and engineering companies, and one-third to e-shops.