Warehouses De Pauw, a Euronext-listed closed-end real-estate investment company, plans to develop a 50,000 m2 logistics site in the city of Genk in Limburg, Belgium. For the project, WDP has agreed to buy a 18,000 m2 property on an existing WDP site in Genk adjacent to the development site.

WDP has signed a binding agreement to acquire the shares in the holding company that owns the 18,000-m2 property from the European Property Growth Fund managed by Standard Life Investments. Subject to a number of conditions, WDP will obtain the site for a price based on the market value of EUR 8.6 mln.

The property is currently leased to Yusen Logistics until the end of 2011. After the closing of the transaction, WDP will look for a new tenant for the property. The initial gross return on this acquisition amounts to 8.6%. Completion and final closing of the transaction is planned for end-August 2011.

King Sturge and Jones Lang Lasalle assisted WDP in the takeover of the site in Genk.

WDP also announced that Mickaël Van den Hauwe has been appointed as the company's new chief financial officer.

WDP builds, develops and lets 1.2 million m2 of semi-industrial and logistics property in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The company has land offering almost 2 million m2 of development potential in Romania. At end-December 2010, the total actual value of the WDP portfolio was EUR 822 mln.