Logos Aims for $2.3B Aussie Portfolio After Sydney, Singapore Acquisitions

Logos Property Group is continuing to ramp up its regional portfolio as the ARA Asset Management-backed developer seeks to add a Blackstone-owned logistics portfolio to recent acquisitions in Sydney and Singapore.

Logos is now among five bidders short-listed in Blackstone’s sale of the Milestone Logistics portfolio in Australia, which is set to receive final bids of around A$3 billion ($2.3 billion) before the middle of next month, according to local news reports.

The face-off for the 1.4 million square metre (15 million square foot) set of warehouse assets has the company headed by Trent Iliffe and John Marsh competing with regional powerhouses ESR and Mapletree, as well as with Australia’s Dexus and AXA Investment Managers of France, according to an account in the Australian Financial Review.

Should Logos shoulder aside the four competing bidders, it would be set to add warehouse assets in five Australian cities to its portfolio and bring its acquisitions of income-generating properties to more than $3.6 billion since mid-February.

Asked about the set of deals, a Logos representative declined to comment.

Buying in Southwest Sydney

While it has been in the race for Blackstone’s set of Aussie sheds, Logos already managed to reach an agreement during the final week of February to acquire warehouse and land assets in southwestern Sydney from logistics operator Qube.

The shed specialist is paying A$1.65 billion ($1.27 billion) to acquire a 100 percent interest in Moorebank Logistics Park, which includes a 243 hectare (600.5 acre) parcel of land with existing warehouses in the city of Moorebank. The deal also provides Logos with Qube’s 34 percent interest in the Moorebank Precinct Land Trust, which has a leasehold interest in the land.

Under the terms of the deal, Logos will fund and deliver the remaining projects at the logistics park, including future warehouses for retailer Woolworths, while Qube will continue to own the intermodal rail terminals and manage its terminal operations at the site.

“The sale of the MLP property assets allows Qube to focus on its core logistics operations and reduce its MLP development capex obligations, while retaining upside potential from the site from long-term growth in container volumes,” ASX-listed Qube said in a filing with the stock exchange.

Redevelopment Option

The Sydney deal was announced just one week after Logos was reported to have agreed to buy a warehouse site in the western part of Singapore from airport equipment maker Pteris Global for S$49.7 million ($37.1 million), according to a source familiar with the transaction.

The property at 28 Quality Road in Taman Jurong encompasses a 269,090 square foot (25,000 square metre) site with a one-storey warehouse and a three-storey attached office block. The part of the property not occupied by Pteris is leased by information management firm Iron Mountain to store records.

The gross floor area spans 220,000 square feet out of a maximum allowable 538,180 square feet, leaving open the possibility of redevelopment to extract more value from the property. The transaction was first revealed in Singapore’s Business Times just one month after Logos agreed to develop a $371 million logistics complex near Kuala Lumpur through a newly established Malaysian joint venture.

CBRE is reported to have brokered the sale of the Singapore facility. Representatives of the property brokerage declined to comment when contacted by Mingtiandi.

Portfolio Sale vs IPO

Should Logos succeed in winning the bidding for Blackstone’s Milestone Logistics, there is still a possibility that the assets could be headed for an IPO as an alternative to the portfolio sale, according to the Financial Review.

Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan are managing the proposed initial public offering, while Eastdil Secured and JLL are reported to have been marketing the portfolio to real estate investors.

The portfolio is 98 percent occupied with an average period to lease expiry of 6.8 years, per the local press report.

Asian Expansion

Logos has built up its presence in Asia Pacific as it seeks to capture growth in the region’s logistics markets.

Founded in Australia by Iliffe and Marsh in 2010, Logos entered China in 2012, with Stephen Hawkins establishing Southeast Asia operations in Singapore in 2016 as the company formed a series of partnerships and joint ventures with some of the world’s biggest fund managers.

Quebec pension fund manager Ivanhoe Cambridge first formed a $400 million China-focused joint venture with Logos and CBRE Global Investors in 2015. The Canadian giant followed up on that JV by investing in Logos at the corporate level in 2016. Logos’s first India venture, a warehouse development partnership with Assetz Property Group, was announced in 2017.

ARA Asset Management acquired its majority stake in Logos in early 2020 for an undisclosed sum, joining forces with Ivanhoe Cambridge. The new partners described the transaction as creating “a best-in-class logistics real estate development and investment management platform”.

Other milestones last year included the launch of Logos’s fourth China logistics venture and the company’s first site acquisition in Vietnam.