Asian logistics firms e-Shang and Redwood are merging to create one of Asia’s largest sector specialists.

The rebranded e-Shang Redwood (ESR) will have more than 3.5m sqm of projects in China, Japan and South Korea.

Jeffrey Shen and Stuart Gibson, both co-founders and chief executives of e-Shang and Redwood, will serve as co-chief executives of the merged firm.

Sun Dongping, co-founder and chairman of e-Shang, and Charles de Portes, co-founder of Redwood, will join the executive committee. De Portes will serve as president.

Shen said: “Long-term demand for modern warehousing is significant and our vision is to be a ‘client-first’ platform with the goal of identifying and delivering integrated logistics warehousing solutions across Asia Pacific for our clients.

“The partnership with Redwood will add significant AUM, pipeline and equity relations as well as management and operational expertise to the team and I look forward to working closely with the Redwood founders to take the merged company to the next level as the leading real estate logistics player in the region.”

E-Shang was established in 2011 by private equity firm Warburg Pincus and Chinese entrepreneurs and today manages more than 2m sqm of logistics space. Redwood was created in 2006 and manages 1.2m sqm.

Dutch pension fund group APG paid $650m for a 20% stake in e-Shang in 2014.

E-Shang last year established a joint venture with APG and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), via its Kendall Square Logistics Properties subsidiary, to invest $500m in South Korea.

Redwood, meanwhile, has previously attracted investment from Dutch pension fund asset manager PGGM, which boosted its investments in Chinese logistics in 2014, committing $144m to a “develop and hold” strategy managed by Redwood, following an initial €95m investment in 2012.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, CBRE Global Investors and PAG have also invested with Redwood.

E-Shang is expanding beyond China, where it holds a portfolio of completed and ongoing projects in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and second-tier cities.

As well as Chinese operations, Redwood also has a Singapore-based fund management platform.

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