GLP China Said Mulling Hong Kong IPO Next Year

GLP is said to be considering a listing of its China unit on the Hong Kong stock exchange as early as next year, following the recent proposed sale of the industrial specialist’s ex-China fund business to US-based Ares Management.

GLP has held early-stage talks with a small number of financial advisors about the plan, Reuters reported Friday, adding that the timing of the listing and potential valuation of the initial public offering would depend on market conditions. The news agency cited four sources with varying degrees of knowledge about the matter.

Led by co-founder and CEO Ming Z Mei, GLP is headquartered in Singapore and formerly traded on the city-state’s stock exchange before going private in 2017. The potential relisting comes after Bloomberg reported in October that the sale of a stake in GLP’s China operations to state-owned Guangdong Holdings had stalled due to disagreements over deal terms.

A GLP representative had not responded to a request for comment on the Reuters report by the time of publication. The proposed listing is understood not to be related to the GLP Capital Partners business in Japan, Vietnam, Europe, the US and Brazil, which is currently the subject of a pending $3.7 billion acquisition by private equity firm Ares.

Separate Lives

Expected to close in the first half of 2025, the Ares buy will bring about the separation of GCP International, the ex-China carve-out, from fund manager GCP’s remaining business, which will continue to operate independently, based in Singapore, with a focus on Greater China.

GLP is retaining its ownership of GCP, with $81 billion in assets under management. The go-forward GLP and GCP will remain under the leadership of Mei, who in October joined the board of development heavyweight Hongkong Land.

In unaudited financials released in October, GLP disclosed a $451 million loss for the first six months of 2024, reversing a year-earlier profit of $214 million, with the group reporting $1.9 billion in cash on hand. Sources told Reuters that GLP’s total net asset value has reached about $20 billion.

The relisting idea is being partly fuelled by China’s economic stimulus and property support measures of the past few months and the subsequent improvement in the country’s stock markets, according to one of the Reuters sources.

Turning Inward

In the past year, GCP’s China business has sold off a number of portfolios by setting up investment vehicles of industrial and commercial assets and increasingly turning to domestic capital sources after the company lost its last investment-grade offshore credit rating last November. In August of last year, GLP was reported to be making available for sale $7 billion in China logistics assets.

In February, GLP set up a fund targeting industrial parks in China with an initial investment capacity of more than $350 million, aiming to focus on properties catering to advanced research manufacturing.

That vehicle was announced after GLP in January said it had brought its China Income Fund XII to a final close with RMB 10 billion in assets under management.