By Eamonn Ryan
During the course of the past year Cold Link Africa has written articles on both the prevalence of private equity firms at the last GCCA Africa conference, as well as the startling number of mergers and acquisitions in HVAC&R both internationally and in South Africa. GCCA’s magazine Cold Facts recently unpacked the subject too with investor relations expert Evan Pondel. This is part three of a four-part series.
Cold storage is no longer attracting attention solely from private equity firms looking for short- to medium-term growth opportunities. Increasingly, the sector is drawing interest from infrastructure funds, pension managers, sovereign wealth investors and family offices seeking long-duration assets capable of delivering stable, inflation-linked returns over decades.
This shift reflects the growing perception that refrigerated logistics has evolved into essential infrastructure – every bit as critical to modern economies as ports, utilities, data centres and transport corridors. As global food distribution networks become more sophisticated and pharmaceutical supply chains expand, investors are increasingly viewing cold storage facilities as strategic assets underpinning economic resilience and supply chain security.
Pondel believes this evolution creates a natural investment cycle between private equity and infrastructure capital. “Private equity comes in, adds value operationally, and then infrastructure funds, with their longer horizons and lower cost of capital, are natural buyers because cold storage looks a lot like a utility to them,” he said.
Recent transactions reflect that growing institutional interest. In late 2025, private equity-backed groups reportedly explored acquiring international operations linked to Americold, while Slate Asset Management and Hamilton Lane acquired a majority stake in Cold-Link Logistics, a major North American platform.
However, consolidation also introduces challenges. Integrating multiple operators with different refrigeration systems, management cultures, IT platforms and maintenance practices can be highly complex. Cold storage is not simply a real estate play; operational execution remains critical.
At the same time, rapid expansion has triggered concerns about overbuilding in some markets. Historically, cold storage vacancy rates remained extremely tight at around 3% to 4%. By 2025, vacancy levels had risen to approximately 5.3% following a wave of speculative construction projects.
Even so, many analysts believe long-term demand fundamentals remain strong. Food exports, pharmaceutical distribution, population growth and urbanisation continue driving structural demand for refrigerated infrastructure globally.
For South Africa and the wider African continent, the consolidation trend may have important implications. Large global operators and institutional investors could increasingly target strategic cold chain assets linked to ports, agriculture export corridors and pharmaceutical distribution hubs. That could accelerate modernisation, but it may also place pressure on smaller regional operators to specialise or partner with larger networks.
The next phase of cold storage investment is no longer focused purely on acquiring warehouse capacity. Increasingly, investors are targeting technology, automation, sustainability performance and energy efficiency as the defining factors that will separate future winners from outdated assets.
As private equity and infrastructure capital continue reshaping the global cold chain, the industry is entering a period where refrigeration engineering, digitalisation, and environmental performance are becoming central investment criteria.
As the cold chain becomes more integrated, technologically advanced, and capital intensive, the distinction between logistics company and infrastructure provider is beginning to blur.
Aleksandarlittlewolf | Magnific.com