Bart Price is expected to join the life science venture from ADIC in January.
With Warburg Pincus and Lendlease continuing to ramp up an Asia life sciences joint venture established in May this year, the partners have named a senior executive from the Abu Dhabi Investment Council to lead the business.
Bart Price, who serves as head of growth markets for real assets at ADIC will be joining Vita Partners, as the joint venture has been named, in January 2025, with the veteran executive relocating to Singapore for the role, Mingtiandi understands.
Price has been in his current role with ADIC for more than six years, according to his LinkedIn profile and previously had spent a similar period with GIC in Singapore where he served as a senior vice president for real estate investments with the sovereign wealth fund. News of Price’s latest role was first reported by PERE.
Warburg Pincus and Lendlease established the life science joint venture in May of this year, with the two companies having already established Singapore and Japan and key markets for the initiative.
Growing Venture
In more than 20 years in the real estate industry, Price is understood to have led real estate transactions valued at over $20 billion across multiple markets in Asia Pacific, under a variety of strategies. Prior to joining GIC in 2012, the executive had served stints with Charter Hall and with Macquarie Group in Australia.
The joint venture was seeded with Lendleases’ Leaf Minatomirai in Japan
After establishing the life sciences venture half a year ago, Warburg Pincus and Lendlease achieved the final closing of the strategy in early August, with the partners announcing their intention at the time to expand the venture into a multi-billion-dollar platform.
Designed to invest in acquiring, developing and operating life sciences projects in fast-growing regional markets, the partners seeded the venture with Lendlease’s APAC life sciences project construction management business and an asset management company that owns Leaf Minatomirai, a Japanese mall which the Sydney-based builder converted into a R&D facility.
By late August Warburg Pincus and Lendlease further expanded the joint venture by purchasing S$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) in Singapore business parks and R&D facilities from entities linked to private equity giant Blackstone and Soilbuild Group chairman Lim Chap Huat.
Ranked by MSCI as the fourth-largest trade of a real estate portfolio in Singapore history, the deal marked the first deal under the Warburg Pincus-Lendlease life sciences JV. That transaction gave the partners a 4.5 million square foot (418,064 square metre) portfolio of Singapore properties leased to companies in life sciences, technology, advanced manufacturing and logistics.
Betting on Ageing
In addition to their Singapore acquisition, Warburg Pincus and Lendlease see Japan’s combination of policy support, ageing population and high property values providing a springboard for life sciences and R&D.
Speaking at Mingtiandi’s Tokyo Forum in November Warburg Pincus principal Tag Yuxiang pointed to Japan’s environment as providing key support for investment in the sector.
“In the life science and R&D space, there are two factors,” Yuxiang said. “Firstly, the demand is very strong. You look at government support, you look at the ageing population. I think everyone is aware that in developed markets, the ageing population is pretty serious. In Japan, nearly 30 percent of the population is above 65. Healthcare expenditure is expected to be over 10 percent of GDP in a few years; Secondly, on the supply side, if you look at just how underserved this space is: there are very few third-party assets for lease. So if you can convert or develop assets that cater to the demand, you have a winning strategy.”
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