Logos, Manulife Launch Korea Core JV With $200M Seoul Logistics Centre

Industrial developer and fund manager Logos has set up its second partnership with Canadian finance giant Manulife, establishing a Korean core joint venture seeded with the $200 million forward purchase of a warehouse project near Seoul.

Upon completion in early 2024, the Logos Siheung Logistics Centre will feature ambient and cold storage facilities, Sydney-based Logos said Monday in a release. The property, located in the Banwol-Sihwa National Industrial Complex in Gyeonggi province southwest of the capital, will provide 100,000 square metres (over 1 million square feet) of gross floor area.

Logos previously teamed with Manulife to acquire a newly built logistics asset northeast of Ho Chi Minh City in a deal announced in February.

“We are very pleased to be extending our partnership with Manulife Investment Management into Korea, having welcomed them into our business in our Vietnam venture earlier this year,” said Trent Iliffe, managing director and co-CEO of Logos. “Korea is a key growth market for Logos, and we look forward to delivering on the many opportunities through this new partnership.”

Green Hub Serving E-Commerce

As the first asset under the Logos Korea Core Venture, the Logos Siheung Logistics Centre is being designed by one of South Korea’s largest architecture firms and developed by a highly experienced warehouse contractor, according to Logos.

The Banwol-Sihwa National Industrial Complex in the city of Ansan, about 50 minutes’ drive from central Seoul, is touted as an eco-friendly hub with smart logistics systems. The Logos project’s expected LEED Gold rating fits with the sustainability aims of Toronto-based Manulife, which has more than $600 billion in assets under management worldwide.

Sung Park, head of Korea for Logos, said the country’s e-commerce boom has led occupiers to demand modern logistics facilities and increasingly sophisticated solutions.

“The acquisition of the Logos Siheung Logistics Centre property is a rare opportunity to acquire a significantly de-risked, institutional-grade asset in a supply-constrained location of the Seoul Capital Area,” Park said. “The property will provide our tenants with state-of-the-art facilities that can incorporate automation and other leading technologies to service their customers in Seoul and across Korea.”

Back for Seconds

The Logos Korea Core Venture is the second Korea-focused vehicle for the Australian firm, which is a unit of Hong Kong-listed industrial giant ESR. In April, Logos announced the launch of a development venture alongside Dutch fund manager Bouwinvest and two unnamed institutional investors, aiming to deploy up to $1.3 billion to build logistics facilities in Greater Seoul.

Logos first entered the Korean market in mid-2020 and has been hard at work sourcing what it calls “an attractive pipeline” of development sites for speculative or build-to-suit warehouse facilities across the country.

By teaming with Bouwinvest, Logos entered Korea with an existing partner, having previously joined forces with the Amsterdam-based pension fund manager and Canada’s Ivanhoe Cambridge on an $800 million China logistics venture in 2020.

Logos counts more than 100 logistics estates across 10 countries in its Asia Pacific portfolio, with regional assets under management totalling nearly $20 billion.