ESR Co-CEO Stuart Gibson to Speak at Mingtiandi Tokyo Forum on 12 Nov

ESR Group co-founder and co-CEO Stuart Gibson is slated to take the stage at Mingtiandi’s inaugural Japan Forum on 12 November, with the industry veteran set to provide insights from more than 15 years in Japan’s industrial real estate sector.

In a spotlight interview session during the full-day event at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Tokyo, Gibson will provide an update on HKEX-listed ESR’s operations in Japan, as well as discuss the outlook for logistics and data centre investment in Asia’s second largest economy.

Japan and South Korea together accounted for 18 percent of ESR’s $80 billion of fee-related assets under management as of 30 June, with the Warburg Pincus-backed industrial developer and fund manager continuing to build out its digital infrastructure portfolio in Japan, including the completion in August of the 25-megawatt first phase of its flagship 130MW Cosmosquare OS1 data centre project in Osaka.

Mingtiandi’s Japan Forum is expected to attract more than 200 attendees and tickets for the event are still available at the link above. Mingtiandi members not able to join in person will be able to see portions of the programme streamed live on MTD TV.

27-Year Veteran

Gibson has over 27 years of real estate development and investment experience in Asia, including 15 years in the Japanese industrial real estate sector.

The executive co-founded the Redwood Group in 2006 and served as the company’s CEO until its merger with e-Shang in 2016, resulting in the formation of ESR.

Prior to Redwood Group, Gibson had served as the Japan country head of US-based logistics giant Prologis. Before that, Gibson was the co-founder and co-CEO of AMB BlackPine, which was subsequently incorporated into Prologis. The executive had also served as chairman of the AMB Property Corporation Japan Advisory Committee.

Gibson is part of a roster of over 30 industry leaders who will speak at Mingtiandi’s Japan Forum, including executives from AXA Investment Management, KKR, Warburg Pincus, Ares Management, UBS, Lendlease, and GLP Capital Partners.

With the event now just two weeks away, more than 165 industry professionals have confirmed their attendance for the forum, including professionals from Mitsubishi Estate, Mitsui & Co, Sumitomo Corporate Group, Mori Building and Japan Hotel REIT.

Data Centres in Focus

Gibson is speaking at Mingtiandi’s Tokyo Forum as ESR has highlighted its rapidly expanding data centre platform as a key propellant of the group’s next growth phase.

Data centres represented 34 percent of ESR’s development starts in the first half of 2024, with the group’s two-gigawatt APAC pipeline comprising 18 AI-ready projects across Japan, Australia, India, Malaysia and elsewhere.

The completion of the first phase of the Cosmosquare campus comes after ESR in May announced the groundbreaking of its fourth data centre location in Japan, a 60MW facility in Tokyo’s eastern Koto ward, boosting the company’s pipeline of projects in the country to 320MW.

Outside of digital infrastructure, ESR’s Japan Income Fund (JIF) acquired a warehouse in Nagoya’s western suburbs from ESR Japan Logistics Fund III (RJLP3). JIF was launched in 2021 and reached a first closing of $750 million in equity from investors including France’s AXA Investment Managers and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.