24 December 2024
Safestore Holdings plc
("Safestore" or the
"Company")
Safestore to enter Italy through a new joint venture with the €175m
acquisition of Easybox
Highlights
· Safestore and Nuveen Real Estate set up
50/50 joint venture to acquire Italian self-storage provider
Easybox for €175m
· Portfolio of ten complete stores and two
turn-key developments across Italy's main economic regions, with a
total maximum lettable area ("MLA") of 780k sq ft (72k
sqm)
· Italian market currently one of the most
underserved in Europe, with supply of self-storage space just 0.02
sq ft per capita
Safestore, one of the UK's largest
self-storage groups, has entered into a 50/50 joint venture with
Nuveen Real Estate to acquire Easybox, Italy's second largest
self-storage operator by number of stores, for €175m.
Safestore will initially invest c.
€45 million for its 50% share in the joint venture which has also
been funded by joint venture level debt. The investment is
estimated to have a negative earnings per share impact of 0.3p in
FY25 and is expected to be EPS accretive in FY27 as the newly
developed stores mature.
The joint venture will acquire
Easybox's ten stores, which have strong trading track records, and
two turn-key developments, with a total MLA of 780k sq
ft (72k sqm). The stores are located across Italy's main economic
centres, including six stores in Milan, two in each of Turin and
Rome and one store in each of Genoa and Florence. The existing
storage facilities are modern and fitted out to high specifications
with the two turn-key developments expected to be delivered in H1
2025. The business will be managed by Safestore, leveraging the
group's capabilities.
Italy is a nascent market for self-storage
facilities, with the lowest supply of self-storage space per capita
in Western Europe at just a fifth of the wider European average.
Currently there are only two self-storage stores per one million
people in Italy with just 0.02 sq ft of self-storage space per
capita. This creates a great opportunity for expansion within the
sector in one of Europe's largest economies.
Frederic Vecchioli, CEO Safestore,
commented:
"The acquisition of Easybox provides us and our joint venture
partner Nuveen a foothold in one of Europe's most under-penetrated
self-storage markets. The high quality Easybox portfolio will
enable us to leverage our management expertise and delivers on our
strategic aims to expand our portfolio into attractive new
geographies. In line with our
investment criteria, it is projected to generate 10% cash-on-cash
returns on stabilisation."
Enquiries
Safestore
Holdings PLC
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Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive
Officer
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via Instinctif Partners
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Simon Clinton, Chief Financial
Officer
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Instinctif
Partners
|
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Galyna Kulachek
Tim Pearson
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020 7866 7850
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About Safestore
Safestore is one of Europe's largest
owners and operators of self-storage with properties in the UK,
France, Netherlands, Spain and Belgium with a maximum lettable area
of 8.59 million sq ft. Founded in 1998, it operates 138 wholly
owned stores in the UK, 30 stores in and around Paris, 14 in the
Netherlands, 6 in Belgium and 15 in Spain. In addition, the Group
operates 7 in Germany and now 10 in Italy through joint ventures.
Safestore has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since
2007 and entered the FTSE 250 index in October 2015.
www.safestore.com