GLP Closes on $4B in European Warehouse Funds

GLP chief Ming Mei is building the firm’s fund management prowess in Europe

Global Logistic Properties (GLP) has closed a pair of Europe-focussed funds totalling $4 billion, following the $50 billion warehouse giant’s first foray into the continent last year.

The Singapore-based firm set up the funds, GLP Europe Income Partners I (GLP EIP I) and GLP Europe Development Partners I (GLP EDP I), last December in tandem with its acquisition of European warehouse builder Gazeley.

GLP Pulls in New LPs for European Fund

GLP announced this week that it has closed the funds after welcoming several new global investors to the platform, which is backed by a collection of global sovereign wealth funds, pension schemes, real estate and insurance firms. The logistics builder will retain a 13 percent stake across both funds and plans to launch additional vehicles across Europe, according to a statement.

Among the roster of new investors in GLP’s platform is Oxford Properties, the global real estate arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), which made its first investment in European logistics this past May by injecting £200 million ($271 million) into GLP EDP I.

Vancouver-based QuadReal Property Group, which manages the worldwide real estate portfolio of the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) — the public sector pension heavyweight — also chipped in for GLP EDP I. Rounding out the roster of global investors in the pair of funds are Korea Fire Officials Credit Union, the savings fund for South Korea’s fire service, and Tesco Pension Investment, one of Britain’s largest private sector pension schemes.

Pan-Asian Giant Raises Profile in Europe

“We are pleased to further grow our fund management platform and welcome new partners while strengthening existing long-term investor relationships,” commented GLP co-founder and CEO Ming Z Mei in the statement. “Demand from institutional investors to partner with GLP remains strong and we plan to establish additional funds across Europe.”

The 21-metre-high Altitude, which Gazeley launched in March, is the tallest and largest spec-built warehouse in the UK

GLP expanded into Europe late last year by acquiring a trove of Gazeley-branded logistics facilities from global alternative asset manager Brookfield Asset Management for $2.8 billion. The pan-Asian developer financed the deal, which added 1.6 million square metres of warehouse space to its fund management platform, by paying $1.6 billion in cash for the portfolio and financing the remaining $1.2 billion via debt.

As it closed the deal in December, GLP announced that it had set up the two European funds, GLP EIP I – comprising a $2 billion of Gazeley’s operating assets – and GLP EDP I, a development venture expected to reach $2 billion when fully leveraged and invested. The latter fund was seeded with land to support the development of 1.4 million square metres of properties.

Following the late 2017 deal, GLP retained Gazeley’s existing brand and management team, with former COO Nick Cook taking the reins as President & CEO of the pan-European business. The move boosted GLP’s overall fund management platform by $4 billion to $43 billion.

“Demand from institutional investors to partner with GLP in Europe outstrips the amount available for investment,” GLP noted in a statement at the time.

Gazeley’s 1.6 million square metre operating portfolio of logistics warehouses and distribution parks, which is concentrated in the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands, is 96 percent leased out to tenants from Amazon to Volkswagen.

GLP Builds Fund Platform in China

GLP, which has over with over $50 billion in global assets under management, has continued to expand its fund management business after being delisted from the Singapore stock exchange this past January. In May, the firm announced the creation of a RMB 10 billion ($1.6 billion) private equity fund in China to invest in the logistics technology ecosystem.

The new fund came a few months after the firm, which has 62 million square metres of real estate assets worldwide, teamed up with state-owned insurer China Life to form a RMB 10 billion vehicle targetting value-add logistics opportunities in China.