Grandfathered permits
An approval that would not be granted today is the real asset. It lifts pricing well above bricks and mortar.
Asset classes · Defence
Defence & security
In a few years defence moved from the exclusion list to the buy list. What is wanted: production space, secured logistics and suppliers with capacity — and it is financed differently from an ordinary industrial asset.
We see two kinds of mandate here. First, real estate and sites: manufacturing halls with explosives or ammunition permits, maintenance and overhaul operations, secured storage, test grounds, conversion land and estates with special conditions. Second, corporate transactions and growth financing for suppliers ramping up capacity out of framework contracts.
The value driver is rarely the floor area. It sits in permits, approvals and security status: explosives law, emissions consent, classified-information clearance, NATO supplier codes, quality certifications. None of that can be produced at short notice — whoever holds it negotiates from a different position.
The capital side is selective. Part of the institutional market is still blocked by its own exclusion criteria; another part rewrote those criteria in 2024 and 2025. We know fairly precisely who can actually sign here, and who merely says they will take a look.
What we look at first
- Existing emissions and explosives permits
- Security requirements: perimeter, access control, surveillance, clearance regime
- Occupier credit and order book, framework contract tenor
- Alternative use of the building fabric without special conditions
- Contamination and unexploded ordnance, especially on conversion land
- Foreign investment clearance where a non-domestic buyer is involved
Key figures
- Ticket size
- EUR 10m – 400m
- Asset types
- Manufacturing, MRO, secured logistics, conversion
- Typical buyers
- Strategics, industrial holdings, specialist funds, family offices
- Critical test
- Permits, approvals, security status
- Regulation
- FDI screening, export control, security clearance
- Process
- 4 – 9 months
Value drivers
What moves the price here
Contracted demand
Multi-year framework contracts with public buyers deliver the cash flow certainty lenders normally look for in leases.
Capacity, not space
What gets valued is annual output. Bottlenecks in power, test benches or people feed straight into price.
A small, decisive buyer pool
Fewer names than in logistics, but faster decisions. Knowing the right ten addresses beats broad marketing.
Process
How a sale runs in this segment
- Step 01
First review and confidentiality
NDA, clarity on security status, and agreement on what may appear in a teaser at all.
- Step 02
Documentation
Permits, approvals, contracts, technical fit-out and conditions captured in full.
- Step 03
Investor selection
A tight, hand-picked list. Approach by the partners only, never through platforms.
- Step 04
Meetings and offers
Personal meetings instead of a bidding round — the pool is too small for anonymous processes.
- Step 05
Regulatory clearances
FDI screening, export control and, where relevant, merger filings planned early.
- Step 06
Completion
Contract, transfer of permits and operational handover in defined steps.
From practice
What we see in real deals
Discretion is not a courtesy here
A leaked sale process can jeopardise tenders and clearances. We run this segment entirely off-market.
Plan FDI screening early
For non-European buyers screening takes months. Starting it after signing costs the timetable and sometimes the buyer.
Clear ordnance questions upfront
On conversion and legacy sites, ordnance clearance is the most common pricing dispute. A report in hand ends the argument early.
Check ESG mandates before approaching
Some funds rewrote their exclusion lists, others did not. We confirm this before contact rather than collect a formal rejection four weeks in.
Questions
What owners ask us
The points owners raise before a mandate — answered the way we would in a first call.
Do you market such assets publicly?
No. We work strictly off-market here, with an anonymised short profile and a pre-agreed, very small investor list.
Do you finance suppliers scaling up?
Yes. Capacity build-out from framework contracts is a classic case for growth capital or mezzanine, usually together with our corporate finance team.
Is there enough investor appetite?
The pool is smaller than in logistics but far more decisive. Strategics and industrial holdings move faster than any open-ended fund.
What about former military estates?
We advise on conversion land regularly, on the buy side and in development. The process resembles land deals, with a longer consenting loop.
Asset classes
What we cover
We advise on real estate and corporate transactions from EUR 20m across Europe, with a clear focus on the DACH region. Every asset class has its own buyer universe – these are the segments we work in most often.
Thinking about selling in this asset class?
Send us the key figures — you get an honest read on price and buyer universe.