HONG KONG/SINGAPORE • A Chinese consortium and two private equity firms are likely to submit bids next week to buy Singapore-listed warehouse operator Global Logistic Properties (GLP), people with direct knowledge of the matter said yesterday.
The interest in GLP, backed by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, comes as the firm has built up a dominant market share in China, where an e-commerce boom is fuelling demand for modern warehousing and logistics.
The Chinese consortium is led by private equity firms Hopu Investment Management and Hillhouse Capital Group, and has the support of GLP chief executive Ming Mei, the people said.
The other bidders are US-based private equity firm Warburg Pincus and Asian investment firm RRJ Capital, they said.
The bids are non-binding, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information was not public.
Two other people said financial group Ping An was also part of the consortium.
GLP halted trading of its shares, which had fallen by as much as 10.7 per cent earlier yesterday, after the Financial Times reported that prospective buyers - including RRJ and Blackstone Group - had decided not to bid.
GLP said it is in discussion with shortlisted bidders, has received no binding proposals ahead of an end-June deadline, and has taken measures to alleviate potential conflicts of interest.
"All directors with a conflict or a potential conflict of interest have recused themselves from all decisions relating to the strategic review," GLP said in a statement to the stock exchange.
Its shares resumed trading at 12.30pm and ended 16 cents down at $2.84.
Warburg Pincus declined to comment. Ping An did not respond to a request for comment. Hopu and RRJ could not be reached.
Blackstone, which is on GLP's bidder shortlist, is still considering whether to make a bid, one of the people told Reuters.
Blackstone declined to comment.
Reuters reported last week that property developer China Vanke was also in talks to join the Chinese consortium.
GLP, with a market value of about US$10 billion (S$13.9 billion), operates around US$40 billion worth of industrial properties worldwide. It earns two-thirds of revenue from China, where it has 15.8 million sq m of leasable logistics facilities.
REUTERS
