Quanta Capital completes sale-and-leaseback deals worth €300m

Irish real estate investor Mel Sutcliffe’s Quanta Capital has invested all €300 million of the monies it allocated in May of last year to its sale-and-leaseback fund. The fund, which was established in the wake of Quanta’s withdrawal of its bid for Yew Grove Reit, will now receive an additional allocation of €50 million for the purpose of making further acquisitions in the second quarter.

While a spokesman for Quanta declined to comment on the €300 million worth of investments it has made to date, it is understood the Oaktree Capital-backed investor’s latest round of closings included the Ardmore Studios Film Factory – a 70,000sq ft movie production facility on five acres; and the Lir Chocolate Factory, a modern, 30,000sq ft production facility on a site of over three acres.

The properties are located in IDA business parks in Bray, Co Wicklow, and in Navan, Co Meath, respectively.In these two particular instances, Quanta is understood to have completed deals with the building owners as opposed to the brands. As such, the tenants remain unaffected by the sales of their premises. Honda’s high-profile sales and distribution facility, a modern 60,000sq ft showroom and logistics building just off the M50, is also understood to have been acquired by the fund.

Outside of its investments in the Irish market, Quanta Capital intends to launch a new €500 million acquisition fund in the third and final quarters of this year. The majority of this fund will be allocated towards assets in the UK.

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Commenting on current market conditions and his company’s plans for the future, Quanta Capital founder and CEO, Mel Sutcliffe, said: We are actively monitoring the market at present and we are still very much in acquisition mode, despite the market softening and transaction times increasing. On the vendor side, the decision-making process has slowed down noticeably.

“Our intention is to grow the business in Ireland through large portfolio acquisitions or individual purchases. We believe the market will create opportunities to buy larger lot sizes into the future. We were, of course, disappointed not to succeed in the acquisition of the Yew Grove Reit. However, we were of course very happy with the uplift in the value of our shareholding in Yew Grove and the margin and the return we received on our share price thanks to Slate’s purchase of the company.”

Apart from its interests in Ireland and the UK, Quanta Capital recently began construction of a large warehouse facility in Loule, Portugal, and is exploring the possibility of further acquisitions in the regions of Porto and Lisbon.

The company has also moved to strengthen its management team with a series of appointments.

Former Yew Grove CEO and Slate managing director, Jonathan Laredo, has joined Quanta as head of acquisitions in the UK and Ireland, while Derek Noble, former head of retail development at Iput and a former development director with Hines joins Quanta as its new head of development.

Commenting on Mr Noble’s appointment, a spokesman for Quanta Capital said: “We expect there to be distress in the development land market in 2023 and 2024 and are well placed to expand further into this market. We have funds to allocate and are open to either outright purchases or joint-venture development opportunities.”

Former AIB chief Michael Buckley, meanwhile, has retired from Quanta’s advisory board and has been replaced by barrister Joseph Christle as chairperson. The new appointees took up their new roles on Monday of this week.