• Loan will refinance last-mile portfolio in Italy that sits in the ‘Hour’ fund, managed by Kryalos SGR on behalf of Crossbay
• Announcement follows €400m facility from Citi to finance assets in core western European markets
• Facilities will help fund Crossbay’s continued growth and expansion across Europe

Crossbay, the first pan-European logistics platform to focus on single-tenant distribution centres, has agreed a €121m debt facility with the Bank of America to refinance its 200,000 sq. m. portfolio of last-mile assets in Italy.

The facility will help Crossbay maintain its current pace of acquisitions, with the platform targeting €1.5bn in Gross Asset Value.

Crossbay’s Italian portfolio currently comprises 24 urban logistics facilities located in or close to major Italian cities such as Rome, Milan and Venice as well as other key population hubs in the southern European country.

In January this year, Crossbay announced a €400m debt facility with global investment bank Citi to finance assets in the Benelux region, Germany, Spain, and France.

The platform’s c. 500,000 sq. m. pan-European portfolio has a high-profile tenant base, counting 3PLs such as FedEx and DHL as well as e-commerce brands such as Amazon as occupiers.

Marco Riva, head of logistics and Crossbay at MARK said: “With Covid-19 seen as having permanently altered consumer’s shopping habits, accelerating the shift away from physical retail to online, lenders are looking to increase their exposure to last-mile logistics, as more and more capital is committed to the sector.

“We were an early mover in the Italian last-mile logistics market, making our first acquisitions in 2018, and the quality of the portfolio we have since created is demonstrated in having a world-class partner in Bank of America.”

Crossbay was launched in May last year by leading private equity real estate investment manager MARK to enable institutional investors such as pension funds and insurers to grow their exposure to the fast-growing last mile logistics sector.

Crossbay is the first European logistics platform to focus specifically on single-user distribution centres in locations never more than a 90-minute journey to the centre of the nearest city. Single-tenant assets require less intensive asset management than multi-let industrial units and are less exposed to the performance of the wider economy than large ‘big box’ warehouses.

The last mile logistics sector has proven one of the most resilient during the Covid-19 pandemic, as lockdown measures made consumers increasingly reliant on online shopping. This has driven occupier demand for last mile facilities, and in turn, investor interest.

Reflecting investor demand for high quality urban logistics assets in prime locations, in November last year Crossbay announced a successful capital raise, securing €550m in equity commitments from major investors such the Townsend Group, CBRE GI, Nuveen, Credit Suisse and QInvest LLC.