CBRE Global Investors Secures $115M for New APAC Logistics Fund

CBRE Global Investors has secured commitments totalling $115 million for Asia Value Partners V, a new Asia Pacific fund, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US.

A Form D filing dated 22 August 2019 reveals that the Los Angeles-based  firm has raised the capital for the fifth in its Asia Value Partners series from two undisclosed US investors, with the vehicle expected to focus on logistics opportunities.

The fund has a mandate to invest in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, as well as Australia and New Zealand, according to IREI, which first broke the story.

CBRE Global Investors said that it expects to invest 60 percent of the fund’s capital in Japan and up to 30 percent in China.

Officials at CBRE GI did not reply to enquiries from Mingtiandi to confirm the report by the time of publication.

The new fund raise comes just under two years after the private equity real estate affiliate of NYSE-listed real estate agency CBRE Group announced the $1 billion final closing of its Asia Value Partners IV.

Targeting Logistics Investment Demand

Asia Value Partners V, which the SEC document reveals was incorporated this year in Luxembourg, carries the identifier 0001785911.

According to the filing, the private equity pooled investment fund received its first commitment on 31 July 2019.

Although the paperwork does not specify a target capitalisation amount, the offering is expected to close within twelve months.

The new fund, as with its predecessors, is part of the firm’s Asia Value Partners Strategy which CBRE GI says has invested more than $800 million through a series of four funds over the past nine years.

“Our focus is the logistics sector, which we believe is supported by structural factors driving tenant and investment demand globally, from which Asia Pacific is a primary beneficiary,” the company says on its website.

The Los-Angeles firm’s previous vehicle, the fourth in its Asia Value Partners series, closed on $1 billion in November 2017.

The fund targeted core logistics assets in Asia Pacific through value-add investments and de-risked developments, while also targeting select investments in other sectors that offered attractive returns or where it could identify underpriced assets.

Fund Raise Follows Korea Logistics Tie-ups

Just three months ago, CBRE GI announced that it had acquired Logis Valley Ansan, a 239,000 square metre (2.6 million square foot) warehouse development southwest of Seoul, from local developer Sunkyung E&C for an undisclosed amount.

The firm bought the seven-storey ramp-up facility in Gyeonggi-do, which is said to accommodate one-day delivery within the Greater Seoul area, through an unnamed fund.

The total floor area of the Logis Valley Ansan logistics facility, including mezzanine floors, is 365,000 square metres, which makes it the largest usable area for a single-property warehouse in South Korea.

It is the second time that CBRE GI has teamed up with Seoul-based Sunkyung E&C after signing a memorandum of understanding with the Seoul-based firm for the development and acquisition of both on-shore and off-shore logistics facilities.

Sunkyung E&C is currently developing a 78,200 square metre logistics facility dubbed Logis Valley West-Icheon, southwest of Seoul, as part of the partnership with CBRE GI.

Exiting a Seoul Office Investment

CBRE GI has also been divesting from assets in the Korean market, agreeing in April, together with its partner, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), to sell the State Tower Namsan in Seoul after buying it in 2015.

A fund managed by Mirae Asset Global Investment, a private equity fund management division of the Korean financial giant, purchased the 24-storey office tower from the joint venture for KRW 588.6 billion ($480 million).

The Korean investors paid the equivalent of KRW 8.8 million per square metre for the 67,000 square metre tower.

ADIA and CBRE GI had purchased the office building in the city’s central Jung-gu district for KRW 503 billion four years ago, according to local media accounts.

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