Allianz, GLP to invest $600m in Asia logistics
German financial services giant Allianz has committed $600 million to funds managed by GLP, a PE-owned warehouse operator based in Singapore, with a view to investing in logistics in China and Japan.
Allianz is investing via its real estate arm, which had EUR5.5 billion ($6.2 billion) in logistics globally as of end-2018 and is looking to expand its Asia Pacific footprint. GLP, formerly known as Global Logistics Properties, said it would target assets with “integrated technologies.”
GLP focuses on developing tech-enabled, large-scale logistics facilities able to plug into modern supply chains in industries such as e-commerce. It claims to have $64 billion of assets under management across real estate and private equity and has aggressively expanded its fund management platform in recent years through new funds and capital recycling initiatives.
Japan has recently overtaken China as GLP’s largest market with $19 billion in assets under management. Operations to date have focused heavily on the Tokyo and Osaka regions and automation investments aimed at addressing aging and labor shortage trends. Yoshiyuki Chosa, the president of GLP Japan, described the country last year as the firm’s best performing market globally by any metric.
GLP has $17 billion in assets in China as well as partnerships with the likes of Best Inc, LF Logistics, BMW, and JD.com. Last year, the firm set up a $2 billion logistics fund for the country alongside Singapore’s GIC Private. This followed closely on a $1.6 billion China logistics fund launch and the creation of another $1.6 billion fund in partnership with China Life Insurance.
“This partnership is a strong strategic fit, leveraging Allianz Real Estate’s reputation and history as an investment and asset manager for real estate and GLP’s investment expertise, operational excellence and global scale,” Ming Mei, co-founder and CEO of GLP, said in a statement. “We look forward to building our relationship with Allianz Real Estate across our markets.”
GLP was founded in 2002 by former executives from the China business of US logistics real estate and supply chain provider Prologis. The firm was acquired in 2017 in an approximately $11.5 billion deal by a consortium including Hillhouse Capital and Hopu Investment.
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