Global Logistic Properties, a unit of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, is preparing an initial public offering of its Japanese warehouse assets that may raise about S$1.25 billion, said three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The company, known as GLP, may list the real estate investment trust in Tokyo by the middle of the year, said sources of the people, who declined to be identified as the process is private. It has hired Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Nomura Holdings to manage the offering, they said.
GLP manages 69 logistics facilities throughout Japan with a combined 2.8 million square metres of floor area, according to its website. In December last year, the company teamed up with China Investment Corp to buy 15 Japanese warehouses for ¥122.6 billion (S$1.9 billion) from LaSalle Investment Management. The proposed IPO would not include those properties, one of the people said.
In September, GLP said in a statement that it had considered options including setting up a “real estate corporation in Japan”, adding that it had not made any decision on whether to pursue such a move. The release came in response to a Reuters article saying the company was planning an IPO of Japanese assets. An outside spokeswoman for GLP referred to the September statement and declined to comment further.
GLP raised S$3.5 billion in October 2010 in what was at the time Singapore’s biggest IPO since 1993.
Source : Today – 7 Mar 2012