ProLogis Takes Off in France

In a marked development signifying the probable redemption of investor confidence, ProLogis (PLD), one of the leading global providers of distribution facilities, has recently signed three leasing agreements in France, totaling 341,000 square feet.

ProLogis leased 139,000 square feet at ‘ProLogis Park Clesud’ in Southern France to a leading manufacturer and retailer of the country. The leased facility provides immediate access to multiple freeways and easy railway connectivity. The undisclosed company is one of the existing clients of ProLogis, currently occupying 77,000 square feet of space in France and the U.S.

Approximately 136,000 square feet of newly developed distribution space was leased at ‘ProLogis Park les Portes de Vemars’, which is located about 18 miles north of Paris. The lessee is Geodis, a third-party logistics and international transport provider and subsidiary of the SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer français or the French National Railways). The current lease was the 20th of its kind between ProLogis and Geodis, and the latter presently occupies 3.3 million square feet of ProLogis’ distribution space across Europe.

ProLogis leased 67,000 square feet at ‘ProLogis Park Rennes’ in north-western France to Transport Breger, a third-party logistics provider. The leased facility is located along N157, the national highway within the special economic zone of Zone d'Activites du Haut Montaigne.

ProLogis owns and manages interests in over 2,500 distribution facilities, service offices, and properties spanning 475 million square feet of space (including properties under development). As of June 30, 2009, the company had 200.5 million square feet of direct-owned industrial properties, 81.5% of which was located in North America, 14.2% in Europe and 4.3% in Asia. In France, ProLogis’ portfolio included 25 million square feet of distribution space.

Comments

[John Gault:]

Another one! I'm gonna start a research service and call it Shmacks. Puff pieces for companies on the brink of failure. This just in, I found a $9 toe/finger nail manicurist to bring the occupancy in my strip center in Goleta to 64.8%. I'm getting... per foot (I'm not gonna tell you, because then you'll extrapolate that my portfolio is underwater by like, 2 billion dollars, but my center is less than half empty).

Today is a great day for Prologis. Buy! Buy! Buy!

Great research guys. Go back to B school, intern.

Oct 16 01:03 AM

[davidbdc:]

It is a fluff piece. 300K square feet is nothing. Is it good that PLD is continuing to sign leases but it doesn't tell you anything about the rents achieved.

PLD is going to make it, but the stock isn't going anywhere north of $15 anytime soon. They have done a decent job of reducing the debt on the balance sheet and cleaning up several of their funds. And they do build the best distribution centers in the world. But its going to be a long slow slog to work their way back to flowing larges amount of cash. Several years.

Oct 17 02:52 PM