Singapore’s RealVantage Enters South Korea With $55M ESR Shed Deal

RealVantage has acquired a $55 million warehouse project in South Korea alongside developer ESR, giving the Singapore-based fractional investment platform its first asset in Asia Pacific’s fourth-largest economy.

ESR Kendall Square, the Korean arm of the Hong Kong-listed industrial giant, began construction of Anpyeong Logistics Center in December of last year, according to RealVantage, which was set up in 2019 by former executives of ARA Asset Management, now an ESR unit.

The investment deal for the five-storey dry warehouse, located in the Icheon logistics hotspot southeast of Seoul, has a duration of 35 months, with the project to be delivered and begin leasing by the end of 2026. The maiden Korean investment solidifies RealVantage’s mandate of granting access to institutional-grade real estate opportunities, co-founder and CEO Keith Ong said Thursday in a release.

“With private capital investments from our investors, they become fractional co-owners of Anpyeong Logistics Center alongside RealVantage,” Ong said.

Warehouse Hub

The Anpyeong Logistics Center sits 40 kilometres (25 miles) from central Seoul and is expected to provide 36,600 square metres (393,959 square feet) of net leasable space once completed.

Icheon has attracted some of the biggest industrial investors in the region, with Singapore-listed Mapletree Logistics Trust having picked up five sheds in the area from Mirae in 2021 for $250 million.

Two years later, the sponsored ESR Kendall Square REIT acquired an Icheon logistics park for $96 million and Chicago-based LaSalle Investment Management purchased two warehouses on behalf of managed funds and its joint venture with a Middle Eastern sovereign fund.

ESR Kendall Square has $10.7 billion in assets under management across 47 assets and 6.9 million square metres of gross floor area, with a development pipeline of $2.5 billion.

Power to the People

To date, RealVantage has funded 107 deals and realised 35, chalking up a 20.7 percent average net IRR for realised equity deals, it said.

The company chaired by ARA veteran Beng Tiong Ng joined forces with Singapore-based Paragon Capital Management last year on a $50 million property-focused private equity fund, reaching a first closing that May.

In March of this year, RealVantage revealed its acquisition of the Arthouse Hotel in the Scottish city of Glasgow with British partner Oberland for £12 million ($15.5 million).

“We are incredibly excited to break new ground into South Korea,” Ong said. “For decades, private equity was the domain of institutions and the ultra-wealthy — now, no longer.”