Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) announces the appointment of Matthew Barnes as a Senior Asset Manager within the Industrial and Logistics team.
Matthew joins RLAM from a three year role as an Associate at Jones Lang Lasalle, where he worked within the strategic asset management team managing a national portfolio of single and multi-let industrial and logistic assets. Prior to this, he held a position in the professional services team at Workspace Group for two years, where he was responsible for undertaking lease renewals on London offices and industrial portfolios.
RLAM currently manages over £2.5 billion of Industrial and Logistics assets, having invested over £800 million into the sector since 2016.
This new hire follows the recent appointment of Mark Evans as Head of Property in November 2020.
James Orr, Head of Industrial and Logistics at RLAM, said:
“We are delighted to welcome Matthew to the team. With the great performance of the sector over the past few years and the fundamentals behind it continuing to look strong, a current lack of supply and continued demand will enable Matthew and the team to drive further performance from our assets.”
Commenting on the future outlook for the sector, James added:
“Online trends that were expected to take years have accelerated, which has led to further demand across all the logistics size ranges. We currently remain buyers but attention has to be given to the micro locations and changing tenant demands when analysing potential purchases and developments. We predict positive relative returns spanning over one, three and five years.”
“Pricing in the sector is historically high, but there have been fundamental changes. The investor base has increased significantly as buyers have seen an increase in e-commerce business which creates a demand for storage space. The resilience of industrial tenants is also an advantage; a surge in automated machinery means tenants are more wedded to their locations, rather than moving on at the end of their lease as has historically been the case.
“We have carried out a significant number of lease restructures and extensions, working with tenants to share the benefits in order to provide a good performance for our investors. We continue to see this area as an opportunity for potential and growth.”
The RLAM property team currently manages £7.76 billion worth of property investments.
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