Based in London, Ganas will be tasked with accelerating investments outside Valor’s existing core markets, with an initial focus on the Netherlands and Italy, where e-commerce is expected to drive demand for last mile logistics space.

Ganas joins Valor from Brookfield, where he oversaw pan-European logistics operations as head of transactions.

Prior to that, he worked at Logicor for three years as director of transactions, managing the Netherlands and Southern Europe markets.

Ganas has over 10 years of real estate investment experience and was responsible for about €4 bn in transactions, mainly logistics assets.

Cane Napolitano, head of investment at Valor, commented: ‘The expansion into the Dutch and Italian markets is a natural evolution given that the structural drivers underpinning the growth of the last mile logistics sector look highly attractive. With a track record of being first movers into supply constrained and highly fragmented markets, there is an opportunity to replicate our success to date, leveraging Matt’s deep local market knowledge in more nascent markets including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Milan and Rome.’

Matt Ganas added: ‘With the continued momentum in e-commerce and reconfiguration of global supply chains, Valor’s unique, research-based approach to sourcing, acquiring and asset managing in-fill logistics assets is well-suited to capitalise on opportunities across select major European cities, where rent and capital growth prospects look very favourable on a relative basis.’

Valor already has a €3 bn portfolio of industrial and logistics properties in Europe and is investing an additional €3 bn in the sector.