European Fruit Production Sale Leaseback

Background: 

The Ascension team represents a private equity owned European producer and wholesaler of grapes. Ascension was engaged to structure and execute a sale leaseback of the Company’s mission-critical cold storage facility located along the A7 Mediterranean Highway, an important throughfare for global food production.

Client Objective: 

The company was focused on hiring an advisor with extensive experience with food-related facility sale leasebacks, especially with experience in this asset class in the European market. The sponsor was focused on unlocking the value of their cold-storage facility through a sale leaseback to generate accretive proceeds that it could use to capitalize on strategic growth opportunities at the company while maintaining control of their mission-critical facility.

Solution: 

The Ascension team with their local European partner ran a competitive process, receiving multiple bids through targeted outreach toward local investors who specialize in the industrial and cold storage asset class. Ultimately, Ascension successfully closed with a sophisticated local investor within the client’s desired timeframe at a total purchase price of over 12 million euros and at a very attractive cap rate for the business.