1st April 2008
NEW YORK COMMON RETIREMENT FUND TAKES 51% HOLDING IN
SHURGARD SELF STORAGE EUROPE LIMITED
Brussels, April 1, 2008, 8 AM CET - Shurgard Self Storage Europe Limited announces that its shareholder Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) has come to an agreement for a third party institutional investor, the New York Common Retirement Fund (NYCRF), to acquire a 51% interest in Shurgard Europe for approximately 383 million Euro (subject to an adjustment for operating results of Shurgard Europe for Q1 2008). Public Storage will retain a 49% interest in Shurgard Europe and will continue, as a managing member of a joint venture, to support Shurgard Europe in the implementation of its ambitious growth strategy. The existing Shurgard Europe management team will continue operations in Brussels, Belgium.
The two existing joint ventures in which Shurgard Self Storage Europe has a 20% equity interest and which contain together 65 European storage facilities, will continue to remain in place with the existing partners. If the interests of the existing partners are acquired either under previously disclosed arbitration proceeding or otherwise, those interests may be acquired by Shurgard Europe. “This transaction will enable us to continue our growth path and our business expansion as planned. In 2007 we expanded to 174 storage facilities all over Europe totalling approximately 850.000 net rentable square meters. Over 2007 we booked a total revenue of 153.1 million Euro compared to 129.9 million Euro in 2006 which represented an 18.2% increase in total revenue. We are now perfectly positioned with great shareholders and strong funding to accelerate our development program and undertake acquisitions, increasing product and brand awareness in Europe,” says Shurgard Europe CEO Steven De Tollenaere.
“Public Storage is very pleased to be teaming up once again with the New York Common Retirement Fund, a premier institutional investor, who shares the same goals and objectives with respect to our investments in Shurgard Europe. In 1998, we teamed up with NYCRF to successfully expand and take our affiliate, PS Business Parks, Inc., public. We believe the European market presents excellent growth opportunities and look forward to partnering with NYCRF to accelerate Shurgard Europe’s development program and grow the European business,” says Ronald L. Havner, Jr., President and CEO of Public Storage.
About Shurgard Europe
Shurgard Europe is the largest developer, owner and operator of self storage centres in Europe with as per December 31, 2007, 174 stores across 7 European countries: France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Germany. Shurgard is one of the pioneers of the self storage concept in Europe and has worked successfully to build customer awareness and acceptance of self storage across Europe. Shurgard’s European network provides consumers with approximately 850.000 net rentable square meters of storage space.
For further information, please contact:
Shurgard Self Storage Europe Limited
Steven De Tollenaere, CEO, Tel: +32 2 229 5659
Additional information about Shurgard Europe can be found on our website: www.shurgard.eu. 
