The founders of pan-Asian logistics platform, Logos, have agreed to sell their remaining 13.6% interest in the real estate platform to the Hong Kong-listed ESR Group for an undisclosed price.

The stake is held by John Marsh and Trent Iliffe (with 6.15% each), who founded Logos in 2010, and Stephen Hawkins (with 1.31%) who joined the firm later to establish Logos’s Southeast Asian operations,

Logos is already part of ESR after the latter took over the Singapore-based ARA group in a US$5.2bn (€4.8bn) transaction 2021, but the founders retained a residual stake in the company.

ESR said today that the sale agreements will accelerate the acquisition from the original January 2025 target, bringing forward the benefits of a fully integrated platform for ESR and its key stakeholders.

ESR itself is in advanced discussion with a consortium, led by Starwood Capital and SSW Partners, which, in March, submitted a non-binding and conditional bid after securing 10.7% in the group, now capitalised at US$6.35bn. Its founders and its backer, Warburg Pincus, welcomed the proposal, which could lead to the delisting and privatisation of the group.

Today, the combined ESR and Logos platform operating under the ESR brand manages assets valued at US$156bn.

Stuart Gibson and Jeffrey Shen, ESR Group co-founders and co-CEOs, said: “As a united company, we will unleash the full potential of our combined fund management and development platform spanning various sectors and geographies.

“Coupled with our growth engines in logistics, data centres, infrastructure and life ciences, our integrated platform further enables us to deliver exciting opportunities for our people, partners, investors, customers and the communities where we operate.”

They added that over the past 14 years, Marsh and Iliffe had turned Logos into a “new economy powerhouse with a sizeable US$23n in AUM”.

Philip Pearce, ESR Group deputy CEO, said the transaction would consolidate the group’s operations and strengthen its strategic position in the real asset sector.

As part of the integration with ESR, Marsh, currently Logos’s co-CEO, will become chair of the combined infrastructure business, and the combined Australia New Zealand platform. He will also sit on the ESR group investment committee.

Marsh said: “In growing the infrastructure platform, I will look to build on the significant achievements already made by the team, including the over US$1bn of equity raised and the multiple in-country renewable energy joint ventures established.”

Iliffe, co-CEO of Logos, will remain with ESR group on a consulting basis for six months following the completion of the acquisition to oversee a smooth transition process. He is believed planning to branch out on his own in the logistics sector.

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