LONDON: Safestore, one of the UK’s largest self-storage groups, has entered into a 50/50 joint venture with Nuveen Real Estate to acquire Easybox, Italy’s second largest self-storage operator by number of stores, for €175m.

Safestore will initially invest c. €45 million for its 50% share in the joint venture which has also been funded by joint venture level debt.

The investment is estimated to have a negative earnings per share impact of 0.3p in FY25 and is expected to be EPS accretive in FY27 as the newly developed stores mature.

The joint venture will acquire Easybox’s ten stores, which have strong trading track records, and two turn-key developments, with a total MLA of 780k sq ft (72k sqm).

The stores are located across Italy’s main economic centres, including six stores in Milan, two in each of Turin and Rome and one store in each of Genoa and Florence.

The existing storage facilities are modern and fitted out to high specifications with the two turn-key developments expected to be delivered in H1 2025. The business will be managed by Safestore, leveraging the group’s capabilities.

Italy is a nascent market for self-storage facilities, with the lowest supply of self-storage space per capita in Western Europe at just a fifth of the wider European average. Currently there are only two self-storage stores per one million people in Italy with just 0.02 sq ft of self-storage space per capita. This creates a great opportunity for expansion within the sector in one of Europe’s largest economies.

Frederic Vecchioli, CEO Safestore, commented: “The acquisition of Easybox provides us and our joint venture partner Nuveen a foothold in one of Europe’s most under-penetrated self-storage markets. The high quality Easybox portfolio will enable us to leverage our management expertise and delivers on our strategic aims to expand our portfolio into attractive new geographies. In line with our investment criteria, it is projected to generate 10% cash-on-cash returns on stabilisation.”