New $1B JV Focuses on South Korea’s Logistics Market
APG, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and ESR Cayman say they hope over time it will double its investment by delivering as much as $2 billion in new development projects.
In another mega partnership, APG, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and ESR Cayman Limited Investments, have entered into a new joint venture, called ESR-KS II. Its goal is to invest in South Korean industrial assets.
The JV, which has a total equity allocation of $1 billion, is considered one of the largest global real estate capital raisings this year. It comes on the heels of another high-profile collaboration by the trio in the area of Korean logistics.
The JV parties say they hope over time it will double its investment by delivering as much as $2 billion in new development projects, including a best-in-class industrial and warehouse logistics portfolio in Seoul and Busan.
The two cities are the most lucrative in terms of consumer spending and most densely populated in South Korea at a time when the country’s e-commerce demand is exploding.
Initial investments by APG, CPP and ESR in the JV are valued at $350 million, $450 million, and $200 million, respectively. Each will hold 35%, 45% and 20%, respectively, of the total issued shares.
The partnership marks APG’s fourth development collaboration with ESR, and CPP Investments’ third joint partnership with ESR. It follows an earlier $1 billion joint venture – which was later upsized to $1.15 billion – between the three. That venture led to the development of 17 projects totaling 2.2 million square meters of Gross Floor Area in South Korea.
All three groups are looking to capture more of the Asian market “to meet the long-term return and sustainability objectives of our pension fund clients,” said Graeme Torre, head of Real Estate, APG Asset Management Asia, in a statement.
“This will allow us to capture the next wave of growth and opportunity in a sector that even in these uncertain times, is demonstrating resilience,” Torre said.
APG is the largest pension administrator in the Netherlands with approximately 3,000 employees. The company provides executive consultancy, asset management, pension administration, pension communication, among other services for over 22,000 employers. It has offices in Heerlen, Amsterdam, Brussels, New York and Hong Kong.
Jimmy Phua, Head of Asia Real Estate at CPP Investments, said the JV “deepens our longstanding relationship with ESR and APG … and is key to our growth strategy in the logistics sector globally.”
As for ESR’s integrated fund management platform, it will be utilized in another capacity at a time when the Asia Pacific logistics sector is booming.
“We will continue our strategy to expand … across the region to grow our AUM [Assets Under Management] while delivering solid returns for our capital partners and stakeholders,” said Jeffrey Shen and Stuart Gibson, Co-founders and Co-CEOs of ESR, in a statement.