W.P. Carey acquired the assets from the Austrian Supernova Group, a private real estate company focused on high-quality retail properties in Central and Eastern Europe. Following this acquisition, WP Carey will own 25 OBI retail stores across Poland.

Christopher Mertlitz, the head of European investments at W.P. Carey, said: “We are excited to build on our existing relationship with OBI and add seven high-quality DIY retail assets to our portfolio. DIY retail continues to remain attractive as an asset class due to its resiliency and the fact that it has remained largely insulated from e-commerce disruption. Within retail, our investment activity is generally focused on essential retail assets in Europe, where we see more compelling opportunities given higher barriers to entry and lower retail square footage per capita relative to the US, coupled with more favourable supply fundamentals and pricing dynamics".

Frank Albert, Supernova Group, said: “We typically follow a long-term buy-and-hold strategy with assets linked to our long-term partner OBI. However, given the presence of the established investor WP Carey in the Polish market and its track record and experience, we saw an opportunity to further our partnership with WP Carey and decided to step out of this high-quality retail portfolio.”

Founded in Germany in 1970, OBI has grown to become Europe’s third-largest DIY retailer and seventh-largest globally. OBI has steadily grown its retail store footprint since first entering the Polish market in 1997, and today, operates 59 stores across the country, ranking Poland as its third-largest market, behind Germany and Austria.