Distribution business in CEE flourishing: Prologis maintain its leading position

Prologis, Inc., the leading global owner, operator and developer of industrial real estate, today announced a summary of the company’s regional results in the industrial logistics market for the first half of 2012. With an active engagement in five countries across the region (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania), Prologis is the primary operator of distribution facilities in Central & Eastern Europe.

LEASE TRANSACTIONS

With 88.7% of the company’s portfolio in the region currently occupied, Prologis has delivered remarkable achievements in these first two quarters. During the first six months of 2012, the company leased more than 560,300 square metres of space in the CEE region, of which nearly 66% was in Poland. This strong leasing activity positions Prologis with a 42% market share in CEE in terms of total number of square metres leased.

The largest new and renewal transactions concluded by Prologis in CEE were as follows:

INVESTMENTS

The past six months were also significant for Prologis in terms of investments:

·      a new 28,916 square metre build-to-suit facility in Prologis Park Prague-Jirny was delivered to Globus, one of the largest operators of hypermarkets in the Czech Republic;

·      a 19,111 square metre build-to-suit facility in Prologis Park Wrocław V was delivered for UPMRaflatac which forms part of the Technologically Advanced Materials division of the UPM group, a leading provider of self-adhesive label materials. This investment marked the beginning of the construction
of Prologis’ fifth distribution park in the Wrocław region;

·      the third building in Prologis Park Janki, totalling 18,665 square metres, was completed making it the first speculative building on the Polish market since the financial crisis; and

·      the construction of the seventh building was commenced in Prologis Park Bratislava in Slovakia covering an area of 24,504 square metres and scheduledfor completion in the third quarter of this year.

“Prologis remains the leading owner and operator of industrial space in the CEE region. Despite the competitive environment, we continue to attract new clients to our portfolio and are fortunate enough to see our relationships with our existing customers across the region flourish,” – said Ben Bannatyne, Prologis Managing Director for Central & Eastern Europe. “The most active markets remain Upper and Lower Silesia, in addition to which our Slovak and Romanian portfolios are fully let. These results clearly confirm our decision not to develop build-to-suit projects in secondary and tertiary locations and instead focus
on master-planned logistics parks in core locations, in line with our customers’ space requirements and their business development needs.”