Logos Vietnam Venture Acquires $80M Warehouse Complex in JV With Manulife

Industrial developer Logos has made a fourth acquisition under its Vietnam logistics development vehicle, teaming with Manulife Investment Management for an investment in a newly built asset in a key manufacturing hub northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.

Situated at Dau Giay Industrial Park in Dong Nai province, the property comprises three high-tech warehouse facilities, two of which were completed last year and a third to be finished in late 2022. Upon completion, the distribution centre will span 116,000 square metres (1,248,614 square feet) of modern logistics space with a value of more than $80 million, Sydney-based Logos said Thursday in a release.

The Logos-Manulife joint venture is acquiring the build-to-suit industrial complex for an undisclosed amount from an existing Logos partnership with a local developer, in a deal that marks the first partnership between Logos and Manulife. The Canadian insurer has been rapidly expanding its property business in Asia and worldwide, including announcing this week that it has hired former DWS executive Marc Feliciano as global head of real estate for private markets.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with a leading capital partner Manulife and our existing Logos Vietnam Logistics Venture on this acquisition,” said Logos country head Glenn Hughes. “We are seeing many exciting opportunities in Vietnam as international companies continue to diversify their supply chains across multiple countries, investing in their facilities to ensure supply chain resilience while meeting the growing consumer demands of e-commerce.”

Manufacturing-Led Sheds

The property located 60 kilometres (37 miles) northeast of central Ho Chi Minh City along Highway 1A is 100 percent committed to a global occupier on an initial five-year lease term, Logos said Thursday.

“Vietnam has been one of Asia’s best economic successes and a key growth market for Manulife in the region,” Gerald Posthuma, chief investment officer of Asia general account investments, and Kenny Lam, head of Asia real estate investments for Manulife, said in a statement. “With Manulife’s long-term commitment to the country, we are thrilled to partner with Logos on this joint venture. The addition of this high quality asset allows us the opportunity to invest in first-class spaces in Vietnam while expanding our logistics presence in Asia.”

In an interview, Hughes told Mingtiandi that the latest asset in the venture will serve as a distribution centre with light manufacturing and assembly as a key component, enjoying direct links to the under-construction international airport in Dong Nai and the international seaport gateway at Cai Mep.

“It’s not going to be a distribution hub for e-commerce touching into Ho Chi Minh City,” Hughes said. “This is a corridor that’s classically been import-export, manufacturing-orientated.”

The $350 million Logos Vietnam Logistics Venture was launched in August 2020 with an unspecified institutional investor believed to be Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC.

The vehicle made its first acquisition in October of that year, buying a plot outside of Hanoi to develop a facility spanning up to 80,000 square metres of warehouse space with an expected asset value of $70 million upon completion.

The two other projects in the venture are under development in Ho Chi Minh City and in Long An province south of the city, with three more soon to be announced in both the north and the south, Hughes said.

Now a unit of ESR, following the Hong Kong-listed group’s acquisition last month of its parent ARA Asset Management, Logos has 9.1 million square metres of property owned and under development across Asia Pacific, with a total completed value in excess of A$27.1 billion ($19.5 million).

Beefed-Up Leadership

The news of Manulife’s Vietnam excursion with Logos came on the same day that the Toronto-based giant announced Feliciano’s appointment to oversee all aspects of the real estate business, including portfolio management, investments, asset management and the integration of sustainability into both investments and operations.

Feliciano most recently spent nine years as chief investment officer and head of real estate portfolio management for the Americas at Frankfurt-based asset manager DWS.

The graduate of the University of Texas at Austin has nearly 30 years of experience spanning public and private real estate investment management, Manulife said Thursday.

“I look forward to joining a team with a reputation for a stable and disciplined approach to real estate investments and for delivering good outcomes to clients,” Feliciano said. “We will continue to build on the foundation that has been established and also look to grow our capabilities, using our global lens and diversified approach to asset and capital allocation, to continue to meet the expectations of our investors.”

Feliciano will report to global head of real assets Christoph Schumacher, who joined Manulife from Credit Suisse last year as part of efforts to beef up the global investment team.

“Marc’s experience in real estate portfolio strategy and his strong analytic approach will be essential to expanding the competencies of the global team as they meet the demand for sustainability and return from investors,” Schumacher said.