ESR, the Asia-Pacific real asset owner and manager focused on logistics real estate, data centres, and energy infrastructure, has agreed to set up a 1.6 billion yuan ($235 million) fund with two Chinese insurance groups, according to an announcement.
The fund is expected to acquire two of ESR’s multi-storey logistics and industrial assets in Shanghai and Suzhou, subject to customary conditions.
The two properties, located in the Yangtze River Delta, have a combined gross floor area of about 320,000 square metres, per the announcement.
The assets serve warehousing and industrial manufacturing uses and have tenants across sectors, including automotive manufacturing, e-commerce, renewable energy, and semiconductors.
The transaction brings in one existing capital partner and one insurer investing through ESR’s China platform for the first time, ESR said.
ESR will remain the fund manager and asset manager and will also retain a minority stake in the vehicle, allowing it to stay involved in leasing, operations, asset management, and fund management.
“We continue to see strong alignment with long‑term institutional capital that recognises the resilience and strategic importance of modern logistics real assets in China,” said Jeffrey Shen, co-founder and co-CEO of ESR.
The deal adds to ESR’s efforts to recycle capital from stabilised assets while preserving recurring fee income and exposure to China’s logistics sector through its fund management platform.
The transaction also comes as ESR said earlier this month that it secured $850 million in fresh equity from existing shareholders to fund growth in its logistics, real estate and data centre businesses.
The Singapore-based group said in a statement that the new capital would strengthen its balance sheet and support expansion across its Asia-Pacific platform, with a focus on logistics assets and data centres.
ESR said it serves more than 1,500 logistics customers and is advancing a development pipeline of about $9 billion. It also said its data centres business has a pipeline of more than 3 gigawatts of capacity for phased development in key markets.
