ESR, Blackstone, SF REIT and Baker Mac Lead Industrial Panel on Tuesday

Industrial real estate continues to be the favourite sector for investors in Asia Pacific and Mingtiandi is welcoming four of the biggest players in the industry to lead off its fourth annual Asia Logistics Forum on Tuesday.

Appearing in the panel at 10:00 AM Hong Kong time on Tuesday, 16 May are senior executives from ESR, Blackstone, SF REIT and Baker McKenzie as Mingtiandi explores the opportunities and challenges presented by warehouse investments in Greater China.

The one-hour session, which is sponsored by Yardi, is being brought to you on Mingtiandi’s MTD TV video platform, and you may join by registering at the link above. Also, for the first time ever, the event will be simulcast via MTD TV’s mainland China hosting system, making the session available across the firewall.

More Projects, Rising Questions

For more than a decade, China’s burgeoning e-commerce sector has rewarded investors in the country’s logistics market with steady returns which have outperformed office and retail projects.

During 2022, however, growth in Shanghai warehouse rents slowed to 2.9 percent, from 3.7 percent a year earlier, according to JLL, as investors pushed nearly 340,000 square metres of new projects into the market.

In response to the arrival of this new space, vacancy in Shanghai’s logistics market grew by 12.6 percentage points in the first quarter of 2023 compared to a year earlier, rising to 15.6 percent, according to CBRE.

Despite the potential for oversupply, China was one of the few markets in the region where trades of warehouse assets increased during 2022, with investors picking up $7.34 billion in income-producing logistics properties last year, compared to just $6.63 billion in 2021.

China First, Japan Up Next

To help explain what comes next for China’s logistics markets, Mingtiandi is welcoming Zhou Bo, chief operating officer of ESR China and Peter Hwang, chief executive of Blackstone’s DragonCor platform to our program on Tuesday.

Also providing their insights will be Hubert Chak, executive director and chief executive of Hong Kong-listed SF REIT and Jeremy Ong, a partner at Baker McKenzie with decades of experience in China’s real estate market who has advised on REIT formation in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Following Tuesday’s program, Mingtiandi’s logistics forum will continue on Thursday, 18 May, with a panel discussion on opportunities in the Japan market.

The Japan session will include Pierre-Alexandre Humblot, managing director and head of private capital with ESR; Kwang Joon Kim, executive director for Japan Investments with Phoenix Property Investors; Laurent Fischler, head of investments for Asia Pacific at Ivanhoé Cambridge and Joseph Chan, managing director and principal for investments at Gaw Capital Partners.