Singapore-based private equity firm Growtheum Capital Partners (GCP) is investing about 7 billion pesos (around $121 million) in Mets Logistics, a Philippines-based cold-chain solutions provider, according to an announcement.
The investment will help accelerate Mets’s expansion in the cold-storage logistics sector in the Philippines. The company currently operates cold storage facilities nationwide, with around 100,00 pallet positions.
Mets offers a suite of temperature-controlled logistics solutions, including cold storage, dry storage, toll processing, and blast freezing services. It started as a single-site operation in Carmona and has grown its network of warehouse facilities to now include Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, and Balagtas in Cavite.
The company’s founder-shareholders will also be investing 500 million pesos ($8.6 million) as part of Mets’s strategic partnership with Growtheum, per the announcement.
The closing of the investment is subject to regulatory approvals. PwC Philippines acted as Mets’s financial, tax, and legal advisor.
“This investment will further our expansion plans and help us enhance our cold chain logistics capabilities, providing greater value to our customers and stakeholders,” said Eduard Tio, Mets Chairman and President.
GCP made the final close of its debut fund in August last year at $567 million, just shy of its initial target of $600-800 million.
Growtheum SEA Fund I, which invests in Southeast Asia and India, raised from around 40 LPs including institutional investors such as the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and the Asian Development Bank. The firm has also deployed in a series of deals.
Growtheum has invested in Indonesia’s e-grocery platform AlloFresh, digital lender Bank Allo, hospital group Mitra Plumbon Healthcare Group, and Vietnamese dairy producer International Dairy Products (IDP), among others.
Mets Logistics further highlights investors’ interest in the Philippines’s logistics sectors. Last June, Philippines-based green logistics company Mober announced raising $6 million in funding from Clime Capital, the Singapore fund manager focused on low-carbon transition.
Mober, launched in July 2015, sources its EVs directly from original equipment manufacturers.
