Dutch pension investor APG has backed ESR Cayman in launching the ESR China Development Platform (ECDP), with an initial equity commitment of $1bn (€848m).
The partners are committed to a potential investment capacity of up to $4bn for the platform which focuses on developing and owning logistics facilities in major logistics hubs across Tier 1 and Tier 1.5 Chinese cities.
“The China logistics sector continues to be a critical part of the China growth story,” said Graeme Torre, APG’s head of real estate Asia-Pacific.
“We believe that building new assets designed to meet environmental standards and ever-changing occupier demand is one of the better ways to create a resilient portfolio for long-term performance.
“To do this, it is essential to have development partners that offer first-class sourcing and execution capabilities, which is why we have embarked on our second China-focused platform with ESR”.
APG established what was then known as E-Shang Star with ESR in 2013.
Since then, it has supported ESR through half a dozen platforms in China, Korea and Japan.
Jeffrey Shen and Stuart Gibson, co-founders and co-CEOs of ESR, said: “Capital partner support has been key to the growth of ESR’s new economy real estate platform.
“The acceleration of e-commerce continues to drive growth in China’s logistics market. What’s more, structural shifts in supply chain management and consumers’ shopping habits and lifestyle changes are reshaping the market.”
They said these trends were opening new development and investment opportunities to ESR and its capital partners as demand for advanced, large-scale and well-located logistics assets became even greater.
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