Logistics assets are becoming the "new favorite" of insurance capital investment.
According to Ping An Life's recent announcement, the company successfully acquired two logistics parks in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province and one in Xixian New District, Shaanxi Province, in which Gaw Capital Partners participated, and according to The Paper, quoted by Gaw Capital Partners, the acquisition** exceeded 2 billion yuan (about 2.).$800 million).
Against the backdrop of China's booming e-commerce boom and cooling real estate market, logistics and warehousing are considered to be the most resilient real estate sector, and it is not surprising that Ping An Life is interested in the logistics asset business.
It is worth noting that why Hong Kong-funded Gaw Capital Partners chose to withdraw from the current momentum of logistics assets. After the equity transaction, what will be the direction of Weilong Logistics Park in Qinhan New Town? The reporter of "Daily Economic News" went to the field to explore the answer.
On February 19, Ping An Life announced that it had acquired 100% of the shares of Heshan Henergy Commerce and Trade Co., Ltd., Weilong (Jiangmen Pengjiang) Chain Management, and Anhua Weilong (Xixian New Area) Warehousing Services.
According to the enterprise investigation, the above-mentioned three logistics park asset companies located in Heshan, Jiangmen, Pengjiang, and Xixian New District, Shaanxi Province have completed the equity change in December 2023, and the Hong Kong-funded VAILOG Developments C31 Limited, VAILOG Developments C36 Limited, and Anhua Weilong Development 18*** have withdrawn, and Ping An Life is 100% controlled, and the legal persons of the three companies are Li Wen.
According to the data, among the two logistics parks located in Jiangmen, Guangdong, Heshan Henergy holds a construction area of about 250,000 square meters of project target assets, which has been operating stably; Weilong Pengjiang holds more than 80,000 square meters of the target assets of the project, and the current lease operation is underway.
Located in Qinhan New Town, Xixian New District, Shaanxi Province, Weilong Xixian Logistics Park is jointly built by Hong Kong-funded Gaw Capital Partners, which focuses on real estate investment, and Weilong China, an Italian logistics and warehousing developer, and is located in Tiangong 3rd Road, Qinhan New Town, Xixian New District, with a leasable area of about 160,000 square meters, a land area of 342 acres, and eight single-storey warehouses.
The first and second phases of the project have all been put into operation.
From the map, the project has obvious transportation advantages, 8 kilometers away from Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, 9 kilometers away from Xianyang Railway Station, 5 kilometers away from Fuyin Expressway, adjacent to Wangfujing Scitech Outlet (Airport Store), and there are many logistics industrial parks and airport-related industrial parks nearby.
The plane to Xixian Airport flew over the Weilong Logistics Park Photo by reporter Xia Zibo.
The reporter came to the site of Weilong Qinhan Logistics Park and found that the overall operation of the park was good, and the occupancy rate of the warehouse was more than 80%. Although it is a snowy day, there are a lot of vehicles, the logo on the vehicle includes Jingdong Logistics, Suning, Zhongtong, etc., and the settled merchants include the electric vehicle brand Tailing Group Shaanxi Direct Warehouse, Zhongtong Yuncang Technology, Xixi Snack ** Chain Center and many e-commerce companies, many trucks and warehouses are loading and unloading, and the operation is relatively stable.
The reporter called the relevant personnel of Weilong Fang as an investor, and the other party said: "Now it is basically all full of parks, only some small warehouses remain, and the current price of a warehouse including property is 180,000 yuan per month." ”
The reporter noted that Weilong from Italy is an "old player" in logistics real estate. According to the official website, it set up its Chinese headquarters in Shanghai in 2007, and launched its first project in China in 2008 - Shanghai Jiading Logistics Center Project, becoming the largest distribution center of Apple, Porsche and ABB in East China, and gradually expanding its layout in China, with a network of logistics facilities all over the country.
In 2014, Gaw Capital Partners entered the market with US$300 million in funding to develop and construct a total of 1 million square meters of high-standard logistics and warehousing facilities across the country.
In 2017, with the launch of projects in Xi'an, Jiaxing and Foshan, the strategic partnership between Weilong and Gaw Capital Partners entered the second phase, with a total of US$2 billion in joint venture capital for development.
According to the official website of Gaw Capital Partners, in the past 8 years, Gaw Weilong Logistics Partnership Platform has invested in nearly 40 projects with a total area of more than 4 million square meters through 3 projects: the first phase of Centurion I raised US$300 million, and the second phase of Centurion 2 raised US$700 million. Currently, the platform is working on the third phase of Centurion 25. Investment, fundraising scale 5US$1.5 billion to invest in and develop modern warehousing and logistics facilities in first-tier cities and their satellite cities.
Judging from the past operation experience, Weilong's logistics parks generally have professional operation, mature and stable operation, and Weilong Qinhan Logistics Park obviously belongs to this category of "high-quality assets", and it is not surprising that it has won the favor of Ping An Life.
After all, the current market view generally believes that the most resilient real estate sector of logistics and warehousing ranks among the top real estate businesses in terms of returns. CBRE also released statistics showing that the net return on investment in logistics real estate in first-tier cities is 6%-8%, much higher than the 4%-5% of commercial real estate and 2%-3% of residential real estate.
According to the property security guard in Weilong Qinhan Logistics Park, he knew the news of the equity change, but since December last year, he has not seen the relevant staff of Ping An Life come to the park, and the park is still managed and operated by Weilong Fang, and the overall operation has not changed.
The above-mentioned Weilong staff also told reporters, "We only have some adjustments in the structure of shareholders overseas, and we have not changed any management in China, and Gaw Capital Partners is no longer in this project (Weilong Qinhan Logistics Park)." ”
At a time when logistics assets are gaining momentum, why did Gaw Capital Partners, its partner, choose to leave?
According to its website, Gaw Capital Partners is a private equity ** management company with a focus on the real estate market, with a registered address in Hong Kong, specializing in redesigning and "refurbishing" real estate projects to bring strategic value-added, including residential developments, offices, shopping malls, hotels, logistics warehouses and data centers. Since 2005, as of Q3 2023, Gaw Capital Partners has raised US$22.3 billion in equity and over US$33.7 billion in assets under management.
Gaw Capital Partners' website.
Specific to the Weilong Xixian project, the reporter learned that the 2023 annual review form of the former shareholder of Weilong Xixian, Anhua Weilong Development 18***, its 100% controlling shareholder is GAW-VAILOG Investments 18 Limited, located in the British Virgin Islands, GAW is the code of Gaw Capital Partners, and VAILOG is Weilong, and the reporter guessed that 18 represents the project number.
As an asset management company, Gaw Capital Partners' general business logic is to incubate logistics asset projects in the form of **, and then repatriate funds to invest in new projects when the projects mature and form stable cash flows, so as to achieve capital appreciation and circulation.
In other words, Gaw Capital Partners' "exit" or the normal exit process of the investment. At present, the three logistics parks have entered a relatively mature stage, and the logistics assets are hot in the capital market, so choosing to exit at a premium during this period may be more valuable than holding them for a long time. "It (Gaw Capital Partners) is also a **, so some of its shares have been given to Ping An. The above-mentioned Weilong Fang staff said.
For Ping An Life, the acquisition of such a logistics park project with stable overall operation and stable cash flow, without the need to invest a large amount of money in construction and renovation in the future, and the operation of a mature team, will also greatly help improve Ping An Life's return on assets.
In terms of returns, it is not possible to calculate the return on investment at this time due to the original acquisition of an unknown underlying asset**. However, according to third-party estimates cited by Wise.com, the average rate of return of Gaw Capital Partners' investment projects in China in the past was more than 10%, and if the underlying assets can reach this level of return, it can be called a high-return transaction.
It is worth noting that in late 2023, Gaw Capital Partners and other investor groups are also looking to complete some of the properties of the Ciroas Plaza commercial and office complex**, and the office of Gaw Capital Partners' Shanghai team is also shown in Cirois Plaza.
As for how to dispose of the assets of Gaw Capital Partners' logistics park and what other planning plans there are in the future, the reporter called the Shanghai department of Gaw Capital Partners, but the other party said "No need, thank you" and was hung up.
National Business Daily.