GLP Capital Partners Hits $360M Final Closing for 8th China Income Fund

GLP Capital Partners has reached the final closing of the eighth edition of its China onshore income fund series, amassing equity commitments of RMB 2.6 billion ($360 million).

The capital for the long-term vehicle was raised from a group of five mainland insurance companies, including new participants and repeat investors that had invested in previous onshore RMB funds, the fund management division of industrial giant GLP said Thursday in a release. The news comes after GLP Capital Partners announced the final closings of the sixth and seventh funds in the series last November with respective commitments totalling $1.05 billion and $743 million.

China Income Fund VIII’s portfolio comprises more than RMB 5 billion worth of core logistics assets across a total gross floor area of 870,000 square metres (over 9.3 million square feet).

“The successful closing of CIF VIII affirms the continued confidence in our capabilities and expertise in managing and operating logistics real estate,” said Teresa Zhuge, executive vice chairman and president for China at GLP Capital Partners. “As a trusted partner of choice, we continue to attract capital from investors seeking access to our proprietary pipeline of high-quality income-producing assets in China, and plan to establish additional funds to capitalise on the demand.”

Asset Management Grows

Located in key logistics hubs including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Xiamen, Changsha and Chengdu, CIF VIII’s nine assets were seeded from GLP’s balance sheet and are leased to companies in the manufacturing, logistics, e-commerce and retail sectors.

Predecessor fund CIF VII drew 13 assets from GLP’s balance sheet to serve hubs including Shanghai, Qingdao, Wuhan and Changsha with a total leasable area of 800,000 square metres, while CIF VI was seeded with 20 assets across 19 cities with a total leasable area of 2.13 million square metres.

Since launching its first RMB-denominated strategy in 2017, GLP Capital Partners has grown its onshore funds business to RMB 128 billion across more than 20 strategies in real assets and private equity.

The fund management arm of Singapore-headquartered GLP oversees $58 billion in China assets for more than 90 institutional private capital partners, including more than 60 domestic institutional investors.

C-REIT Developments

In addition to private capital strategies, GLP last month completed a RMB 1.85 billion follow-on equity offering for GLP C-REIT, the first onshore logistics trust to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the fourth C-REIT to successfully carry out a secondary offering.

The proceeds will go to acquiring a trio of assets developed by the trust’s sponsor — namely GLP Park Qingdao Qianwan Port, GLP Park Jiangmen Heshan and GLP Chongqing Urban Distribution Logistics Centre — expanding the portfolio to 10 assets with a total leasable area of 1.16 million square metres.

In March, GLP arch-rival ESR got the green light from the Hong Kong stock exchange for a proposed spin-off of three mainland logistics projects and their potential listing through a C-REIT on the Shanghai bourse.

First announced last December, ESR’s proposed trust involves the first three phases of the company’s Kunshan Huaqiao Park complex, totalling more than 427,000 square metres of gross floor area. The complex is located in Kunshan’s Huaqiao town, roughly midway between Shanghai and Suzhou in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.