Accolade increases the profitability of its Polish portfolio by refinancing with Aareal Bank worth 153 million EUR.
Quality industrial halls confirm their position as the most sought-after asset among commercial properties. Increasing e-commerce, stable logistical companies, and major manufacturers are a mix into whose support and growth the most important investors and the largest European banks focused on real estate are investing. Accolade and Aareal Bank of Germany have agreed on the refinancing of six parks in Szczecin, Bydgoszcz, Lublin and Zielona Góra in Poland. This refinancing, in an aggregate value of 153 million euros, is one of the largest financial transactions in the industrial real estate segment in Central Europe.
For Accolade, the refinancing agreement means reduced costs of bank financing and less administrative burden, and assurance of portfolio stability for years to come.
“Large, modern industrial parks constitute infrastructure for business. They are the present and future of shopping because major online vendors are based on them. They are the place where most modern products are made. And they are also the place that provides for a supply chain for all of us and the European economy. From food to clothing to machines and their parts. Quality premises for modern enterprise are the path to a sustainable future of European industry,” said Co-Founder of Accolade Fund SICAV Milan Kratina, in commenting on the present state of European business.
“We consider the refinancing of the portfolio of several industrial parks with one loan from one bank to be another natural step in the development of our business in Poland. It is a complex and time-consuming process, but it brings significant benefits. The management of financing and related reporting will be simplified in a fundamental way. Financial indicators will be assessed on the basis of the entire portfolio instead of separate properties, and the structure of our financing thus becomes even more resilient to the external environment. Thanks to this transaction, we also reduced the costs associated with financing and extended its maturity. We are very pleased to have found a partner at Aareal Bank who has supported us throughout this process. At the same time, we continue to cooperate with the original financing banks on our other projects in Poland,” said Zdeněk Šoustal, Member of the Board of Co-Founder of Accolade Fund SICAV.
“We are pleased by the confidence Accolade has placed in us. This agreement underscores our expertise in the financing of comprehensive logistical portfolios and is a testament to our ability to implement industrial trends in cooperation with our clients,” added Hubert Manturzyk, General Manager of Aareal Bank Poland.
Today, Accolade owns modern parks in all parts of Poland, including strategic locales such as the currently refinanced Bydgoszcz, Szczecin, Lublin and Zielona Góra. The success of this business model is ensured by good geographic diversification as well as the good-quality distribution of tenants’ fields of business: one-third of the group’s portfolio is from the dynamically growing segment of online purchases, another third is logistics and warehousing, and the last third is made up of light production, machinery, automotive, and other processing industry brands. The portfolio of Accolade’s tenants keeps growing and includes companies such as DHL, Oponeo, Pierce, Data Modul, Expondo, Raben, REAC, Swiss-Krono, FedEx, Laboratoria Natury, Rohlig Suus, Schenker, Oponeo, and DPD. The main factor that sets Accolade apart from its competitors on the Polish market is the more than 50% share of brownfield projects; furthermore, all-new parks hold BREEAM environmental certificates.
Aareal Bank AG is an international bank based in Germany specializing in commercial real estate financing for institutional clients in Europe, North America and Asia. In addition to financing, it also provides consulting services in the field of commercial real estate.