Redefine Properties and Polish private equity company Griffin Capital Partners have jointly acquired Stokado, Poland’s second-biggest self-storage operator, giving the former an instant foothold in that market.
Redefine and Griffin set up a venture that is the acquiring entity, which will own a majority stake in Stokado.
Earlier this year, Redefine notified shareholders of its intentions to diversify its portfolio by creating a self-storage platform with scale.
It identified Poland as a strategic location as the country’s self-storage market is still in its infancy. It is nearly eight times smaller than Europe’s, which is fragmented by many small and medium-sized players.
Redefine previously said the two companies had formed a 93% to 7% venture where Griffin would render on-the-ground services to the business.
The two have previously worked together in Poland on other projects and will use the newly formed venture to grow Stokado’s operations.
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Following the acquisition of a 51% stake in Stokado, it would bump this up to 75% through new developments, which will be attained through a pipeline that includes approximately 50 projects over the next five years.
Its plans also include developing a countrywide network of modern, purpose-built self-storage facilities, Redefine said on Thursday.
In the venture, Griffin will act as co-owner and asset manager of the platform, and the founders of Stokado will remain involved as minority shareholders and the management team of the company, it said.
Growth potential
Speaking about the deal, Redefine CEO Andrew Konig said with Poland’s economy showing “exciting growth potential”, there is plenty of upside in its self-storage market.
“This deal leverages the strengths of all parties and opens the door to expansion, diversity and growth in line with Redefine’s focus on strategically allocating capital into areas with upside at low risk,” Konig said.
He said the lack of institutional grade storage space in Poland makes for an attractive proposition.
“We are convinced this sector in Poland has many years of stable growth ahead.”
Stokado, which has cemented itself as one of the leaders in Poland’s self-storage industry, provides services such as the storing of goods belonging to private and business-to-business customers in around 3 000 units.
Its facilities span Wrocław, Poznań, Bydgoszcz, Szczecin, Kalisz, Legnica, Zabrze and Zielona Góra.
Griffin
Maciej Dyjas, managing partner at Griffin, said the company is also actively diversifying its portfolio beyond commercial and residential real estate projects to add renewable energy projects and the self-storage sector.
“Our strategy is to seek investment opportunities and growth potential in any sector that we find attractive. The self-storage market is performing strongly, and we see that investors’ interest continues to grow. We are pleased to continue our partnership with Redefine Properties while developing a new market in Poland,” Dyjas said.
Stokado co-founder Dawid Bechcicki said the company will focus on developing facilities in major cities throughout Poland.
Nebil Senman, managing partner at Griffin, said the sector offers vast growth opportunities.
“The self-storage market … is nascent in Poland. Poland has less than 4 000 sqm of self-storage space per million residents, compared to roughly 8 500 in Germany, 22 000 in France, or Spain. We believe the sector offers vast growth opportunities.”
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