Singapore’s GIC has injected a further A$490m (€321.7m) into ESR Australia to back the launch of a second development partnership with the Australian arm of ESR.
ESR has raised A$540m, including the cornerstone investment from GIC, with the first close of ESR Australia Development Partnership II (EADP II).
It expects to raise the balance of the targetted A$1bn in equity in the second close by the first half of 2023.
GIC is now the single-largest capital partner of ESR Australia, having participated in a suite of ESR funds, including last month’s launch of the ESR Logistics Partnership III, with an equity commitment of A$600m.
GIC also partnered ESR in its acquisition of the A$3.8bn ESR Milestone Logistics Portfolio from Blackstone last year.
EADP II is the successor to the fully-allocated ESR Australia Development Partnership (EADP I), established in June 2020 with A$1bn in equity commitments from partners including GIC.
Other investors in the first development fund include M&G Real Estate and the ESR Group. Korea Investment Corporation is also reported to be involved, although this has not been confirmed.
Phil Pearce, ESR Australia’s chief executive, declined to comment on potential investors for EADP II except to say that he expected them to be of the same calibre as those who had invested in EADP I.
Pearce said: “We are currently doing due diligence on a couple of sites for the new partnership.”
Initially, the fund would focus on the population centres of Australia’s Eastern seaboard, but if opportunities presented, EADP II would look to invest in other markets, such as Western Australia.
Pearce said that, when fully built out, EADP II would have a portfolio of around A$2.5bn, the same size as its predecessor fund.
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