Tony Roper to take over as Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income chairman – Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income (ASLI) has this morning published its annual report to December 31, 2018 and made the announcement that Tony Roper will succeed Pascal Duval as chairman of the trust. Tony will take the reigns following the company’s AGM on June 11.
On the results side, ASLI reported NAV total returns down 2.98% for 2018. The decline in NAV was mainly attributable to the impact of transaction costs on acquiring properties reflecting the fact that the company was in its initial investment period in 2018. ASLI launched in December 2017 with £187.5 million. It has deployed all of its flotation proceeds and some debt across a diverse portfolio of 10 logistics assets in five countries. The seismic shift underway in the way we shop has been devastating for the UK’s high streets and shopping malls but has created new opportunities for investors providing the plumbing behind the growth in ecommerce.
The growth of ecommerce is transforming the logistics market in Europe. Investors are drawn to the attractive prospective returns available from this sector and this has pushed up prices, depressing yields. ASLI provides exposure to a European market where e-commerce penetration is generally much lower than in the UK, US and parts of Asia.
Here in the UK, we have embraced online shopping to a greater extent even than the US – in 2017, we made almost 18% of our purchases online against 15% for the States. For Europe though, with the exception of Germany, the growth in ecommerce has a long way to go with equivalent figures for Spain, Poland and Italy below 5%.
Big box logistics and last mile urban warehouses in Europe
ASLI invests in a diversified portfolio of ‘big box’ logistics and ‘last mile’ urban warehouse assets in Europe (this includes both the UK and the Nordic countries but, in practice, the UK is unlikely to feature in the portfolio) with the aim of providing its shareholders with a regular and attractive level of income return. It is targeting a 3% yield on the IPO price in its first accounting period and a 5% yield in its second accounting year, both in euro terms, along with the potential for long-term income and capital growth (target total return of 7.5% a year in euros).
ASLI: Tony Roper to take over as Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income Chairman