LOGOS Establishes Korea Venture with Global Institutional Investors including Bouwinvest with ∼US$1.3bn of Investment Capacity

LOGOS is pleased to announce the establishment of its first South Korean development venture with existing capital partner, Bouwinvest and two other leading global institutional investors − both who invest with LOGOS across the region. The Venture, which will have circa US$1.3 billion in investment capacity, is seeking to develop high-quality logistics facilities in and around the Seoul Metropolitan Area.

The Asia logistics market is continuing to see substantial demand from customers for modern logistics real estate. This is being driven by the rapid rise of e-commerce as well as recent changes in supply chain management caused by COVID-19, with a move away from a just-in-time inventory model towards greater levels of local inventory. To support this growth, LOGOS has continued to raise new ventures across the 10 countries it operates in, with US$4 billion of capital raised in the past 12 months despite the current market disruption caused by COVID-19.

The South Korean Venture represents LOGOS’ 31st logistics real estate vehicle and sees the Group’s total assets under management increase to over US$19.6 billion. Through this Venture, LOGOS and its investment partners aim to establish a state-of-the-art, modern portfolio of logistics facilities to support the expanding Korean logistics and industrial market.

Core to LOGOS’ business principles, the Venture will incorporate best practice sustainability initiatives across its future development portfolio and target the highest sustainability targets. As a part of this process, the portfolio is expected to use significantly less electricity and less water, while generating less greenhouse gas emissions.

LOGOS’ Managing Director and Co-CEO, Trent Iliffe, said: “Korea is an important market to complement our regional growth and expansion into North-East Asia and it plays an important role as we continue to look for ways to support our customers and capital partners’ regional real estate needs. We are also committed to taking the lead on sustainability for the Korean logistics real estate market and help shape new standards for our customers and investors.

“Korea is a market witnessing accelerating e-commerce penetration, strong customer demand for quality logistics facilities and resilient economic fundamentals. We are pleased to be partnering again with a consortium of our existing leading global institutional investors as part of this strategy,” Mr Iliffe added.

Robert Koot, Director Asia-Pacific at Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors, said: “We are pleased to expand our logistics footprint in the region as a founding investor for this new venture with LOGOS and believe long-term fundamentals in South Korea are compelling for development of quality assets. The strategy also complements our current logistics investments in Australia, Japan, Singapore and China.”

LOGOS entered the Korean market in mid 2020. It has sourced an attractive pipeline of development sites for this Venture and is looking forward to making a series of announcements over the coming months as it delivers a steady pipeline of speculative or build-to-suit logistics facilities for its customers in key logistics locations across Korea.

LOGOS’ Asia Pacific portfolio comprises over 100 logistics estates across 10 countries with total Assets Under Management (AUM) of over US$19.6 billion.