US-based private equity alternative investment management firm Blackstone has acquired a majority stake in a Guangzhou logistics park in a deal worth $1.1 billion, media reports said. It is the biggest-ever industrial real estate asset acquisition made by Blackstone in China.
Blackstone acquired a 70 percent stake in Guangzhou International Airport R&F Integrated Logistics Park from Guangzhou R&F Properties. The deal is expected to improve Blackstone’s logistics portfolio in China as well as in the Southeast Asian region. In recent times, Blackstone has made a series of logistics acquisitions in the region.
The logistics park is located 15 kilometres from the Guangzhou airport and it is home to tenants that include logistics providers such as SF Express and YTO Express and ecommerce giants such as Tmall and JD.com. The facility is host to some of the top mainland corporates including China Mobile, China Unicom, Sinopharm and China Resources Pharma.
In regard to the logistics opportunities in the Greater Bay Area, Cliff Chen, a Shanghai-based managing director with Blackstone Real Estate told the media, “The Greater Bay Area is rapidly emerging as a financial, technology and transportation hub and one of China’s biggest logistics markets. Our scale, expertise in logistics, and the support of dedicated teams on the ground enable us to drive our plans for the park’s future growth including constructing additional cold storage facilities and institutional-quality warehouses to cater to rising demand.”
Last month, Blackstone acquired a British logistics portfolio from Prologis for £473 million, making it the country’s largest industrial real estate sale on record.