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e-Shang Infinity Cayman, a unit of warehouse developer and operator e-Shang Redwood (ESR), has acquired an 80 percent indirect stake in Cambridge Industrial Trust Management (CITM), the manager of Cambridge Industrial Trust (CIT).
The vendors are National Australia Bank and investment firm Oxley Global.
The deal also includes ESR purchasing a 100 percent indirect interest in CIT’s property manager, Cambridge Industrial Property Management (CIPM), with the transaction expected to occur within the week.
“CIT is a well-respected industrial REIT which has grown significantly since its initial public offering (IPO) in 2006. Our investment underscores our confidence in the underlying fundamentals and quality of CIT’s assets, which provide us a strong platform for further diversification and growth into Singapore and key markets across Asia,” said ESR’s co-CEOs Jeffrey Shen and Stuart Gibson in a joint statement.
“Having grown CIT from 27 assets worth S$0.5 billion during IPO to 49 assets worth S$1.4 billion, the business is in a much better position to grow to the next level with ESR as the major shareholder of the manager,” noted CITM’s Independent Chairman, Ooi Eng Peng.
Last October, ESR signed an agreement to acquire up to 10.65 percent of CIT’s outstanding units. Upon completion of the deal, ESR will become the second largest stakeholder in the trust.
ESR, a pan-Asia logistics property developer, owner and operator, was formed as a result of a merger between e-Shang and the Redwood Group in 2016.
eShang, which builds warehouses in China and South Korea, was founded by private equity firm Warburg Pincus and two Chinese real estate entrepreneurs, Shen and Sun Dongping.
Meanwhile, the Redwood Group was established by Gibson and Charles de Portes in 2006. It is a specialised logistics property firm and funds management business with operations in China and Japan.
Since the merger, ESR has become the second biggest developer in North Asia with over US$5 billion in assets under management across China, Korea and Japan. It currently has 6.5 million sq m of projects in operation or under development in those three countries, with an additional six million sq m in the pipeline.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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