GLP raises £3.1bn to pump into Gazeley
Gazeley owner GLP has raised $4bn (£3.1bn) from some of the world’s largest institutional investors to back its purchase of the European logistics company.
Asia’s largest owner of warehouses bought Gazeley from Brookfield last year for $2.8bn using its own balance sheet, but launched two new funds to syndicate the equity to.
Now closed, these have attracted investment from the likes of QuadReal Property Group, the global real estate investment arm of British Columbia Investment Management Corporation; Korea Fire Officials Credit Union, the savings fund for South Korea’s fire service; Oxford Properties; and Tesco Pension Investment.
Gazeley owner GLP has raised $4bn (£3.1bn) from some of the world’s largest institutional investors to back its purchase of the European logistics company.
Asia’s largest owner of warehouses bought Gazeley from Brookfield last year for $2.8bn using its own balance sheet, but launched two new funds to syndicate the equity to.
Now closed, these have attracted investment from the likes of QuadReal Property Group, the global real estate investment arm of British Columbia Investment Management Corporation; Korea Fire Officials Credit Union, the savings fund for South Korea’s fire service; Oxford Properties; and Tesco Pension Investment.
GLP will manage the funds and retain a 13% stake in both vehicles.
Capital came from North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and from sovereign wealth funds, pension plans, property and insurance companies.
Each of the funds have raised $2bn. GLP Europe Income Partners I has a core strategy and holds the 17m sq ft of income producing real estate that Gazeley owned at the time of the purchase across the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
GLP Europe Development Partners I has a core-plus/value-add strategy and holds the company’s 1.4m sq ft development pipeline, which is predominantly in the UK, and its capital will be used to build this out.
GLP is now in the process of creating new European funds similar to the two it has closed to fund the further growth of the Gazeley business, and to buy new standing assets and finance development projects.
In June the company recruited Daan Van den Hoven from Prologis to head up its European fund management initiatives.
Ming Mei, co-founder and chief executive of GLP, said: “We are pleased to further grow our fund management platform and welcome new partners while strengthening existing long-term investor relationships.
“Demand from institutional investors to partner with GLP remains strong and we plan to establish additional funds across Europe.”
The fund raise is the latest symbol of major investors’ desire to gain greater exposure to the logistics market, which is underpinned by the growth of e-commerce.
The next large-scale opportunity for such investors to pump cash into the UK logistics market is Delancey and Barwood’s £400m db symmetry, which is currently up for sale and has a development pipeline of up to 47m sq ft.
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