Hines has entered Singapore’s logistics market through a joint venture with DWS to purchase a nine-story logistics facility in the west of the city-state.
The partners have acquired Bukit Batok Connection, a 378,000sqft industrial asset, from the portfolio of Soilbuild Business Space REIT, an industrial trust which Blackstone and Soilbuild privatised last year.
The asset was valued at S$83.90m (€55m) at 31 December 31 2020.
“We are thrilled to establish the Hines brand in Singapore, and, finally, a firm APAC presence with at least one project under way in all gateway markets within the region,” said Lim Kian Fong, managing director and country head for Singapore at Hines.
Lim said industrial was a growing asset sector for APAC and Hines looked forward to broadening its portfolio in Singapore beyond logistics to include multifamily, office and retail.
Hines had invested nearly US$4.1bn (€3.6bn) in the industrial and logistics sector and completed over 60 acquisitions totalling more than 43m sqft.
In addition, the US investor had an additional 36 development projects ranging from in-design to completed, currently held in its portfolio, representing an additional 25m sqft, he said.
The transaction is the third acquisition of a logistics asset in Singapore for DWS, which is buying the property on behalf of its institutional, Asia-focussed core real estate strategy.
Christopher Kimm, DWS head of real estate, Asia-Pacific, said the relative resilience of Asia-Pacific logistics along with the property’s strong Bukit Batok submarket location made it an attractive acquisition.
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