Gaw Sells Mainland Logistics Assets to Ping An in $280M Deal

Gaw invested in the sheds under its 2013-vintage Gateway Real Estate Fund IV (Image: Gaw)

Hong Kong’s Gaw Capital Partners has announced the sale of a portfolio of three mainland logistics assets held in a joint venture with PIMCO Prime Real Estate and Italian industrial specialist Vailog, with sources familiar with the matter pointing to Chinese insurance giant Ping An as the buyer.

The portfolio, which comprises two industrial parks in the Guangdong provincial city of Jiangmen and one facility in the central Chinese city of Xi’an, changed hands for over RMB 2 billion ($280 million), the sources indicated.

The venture firm led by tycoon Goodwin Gaw confirmed the disposal last week in an announcement touting the successful exit of Gaw’s first logistics vehicle in China.

“This achievement underscores our team’s dedication and the trust our investors place in us,” said Humbert Pang, managing principal and head of China at Gaw. “We are proud of our achievements and will continue our long-term commitment in the China market.”

Ten-Year Hold

The three assets come from a broader portfolio of logistics projects owned by a partnership between Gaw and Vailog’s China unit. The tie-up was formed in 2014 with $300 million in initial capital to jointly acquire, develop and manage logistics facilities in China.

Humbert Pang, managing principal and head of China at Gaw Capital Partners

At the time of the venture’s establishment, the partners had aimed to build a portfolio of assets totalling 1 million square metres (10.8 million square feet) and $1 billion in value. Since then, the venture has invested in nearly 40 projects totalling 4 million square metres and $1.5 billion in asset value, according to Gaw’s website. The projects constitute part of the firm’s 2013-vintage Gateway Real Estate Fund IV.

In 2018, Germany’s Allianz Real Estate, as PIMCO Prime was then known, acquired a 50 percent stake in the Gaw-Vailog joint venture for an undisclosed sum, giving Allianz half-ownership of a portfolio of five logistics projects in Shanghai, Jiaxing, Foshan, Wuhan and Shenyang with a total leasable area of 375,000 square metres. Gaw and Vailog retained the remaining half of the venture and continued to manage the assets.

In its announcement, Gaw provided no specifics about the assets sold, the identity of the buyer or the current status of the JV with PIMCO Prime and Vailog.

Milan-based Vailog was fully absorbed by UK-listed industrial REIT Segro last April. The Europe-focused trust, which has not disclosed any assets in Asia Pacific, had taken a majority stake in Vailog in 2015.

Gaw, which managed $33.7 billion of global assets as of last year’s third quarter, has recently pursued investments outside of China, with the firm investing in data centre projects in Indonesia and Malaysia and acquiring the Hyatt Regency and logistics assets in Tokyo. At the same time, the fund manager has been shopping a Grade A office building in Shanghai.

Strategic Shift

The shed venture had been part of Allianz Real Estate’s Asia Pacific ramp-up under then regional boss Rushabh Desai, who built the fund manager into one of the region’s most active investors with €8.1 billion ($8.8 billion) of assets under management in APAC — the equivalent of 10 percent of its global property portfolio at the time of Desai’s resignation in March 2022.

The company has shifted its APAC strategy since Desai’s departure, with PIMCO Prime initiating asset sales in 2023 after bringing on board Scott Kim, the former head of real estate investment at Korea’s National Pension Service, in May 2022 as Desai’s replacement.

Last October, PIMCO Prime sold back a business park in India’s Telangana state to Singapore sovereign fund GIC, with local media accounts indicating a transaction price of INR 21.5 billion ($258.7 million). The fund manager had teamed up with local developer Shapoorji Pallonji Group to acquire the asset from GIC and Tishman Speyer in 2019.

PIMCO Prime has not made any known acquisitions in APAC since the purchase of a portfolio of 12 residential assets in Tokyo for $90 million in March 2022, the same month as Desai’s departure.

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