CITIC Securities fund makes pre-IPO investment in ESR

CITIC is investing via a fund focused on China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) infrastructure agenda known as CSOBOR that is managed by the bank’s global investment platform CLSA. The capital will be used to support ESR’s expansion in China and Southeast Asia.

"CLSA anticipates significant growth in the logistics infrastructure market and we believe ESR's business model, tenant qualities, and market position ensure it will be a leader in this sector,” Jeffrey Shen and Stuart Gibson, co-CEOs of ESR, said in a statement.

It follows a string of large investments in the company, including an approximately $330 million commitment from Korean conglomerate SK Group last year and a $306 million commitment from JD.com in May that was aimed at expanding an existing e-commerce partnership in China. The company was estimated to be worth $2.8 billion as recently as mid-2017.

Early last year, Warburg Pincus made a $300 million investment that was also billed as a pre-IPO round and included participation from a consortium of Chinese investors, including China Everbright. ESR has reportedly planned to go public by mid to late 2019.

Formed in 2016 through the merger of Singapore-based warehousing company Redwood Group Asia and Chinese counterpart e-Shang, ESR manages about $12 billion of assets across Asia. This portfolio includes more than 10 million square meters of projects owned and under development. Fund management operations are based in Hong Kong and Singapore.

CSOBOR is said to make deployments in a range of $20-50 million with an inclusive approach to infrastructure development opportunities related to OBOR. In addition to logistics, target sectors are expected to include consumer, technology, media and telecom, healthcare and education.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Southeast Asia
• Expansion
• Infrastructure
• China
• CITIC Securities
• Logistics
• Asia