SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - Global Logistic Properties has shortlisted at least three groups in the bidding for the Singapore-based warehouse operator, people with knowledge of the matter said.
GLP invited a management-backed consortium that includes Chinese investment firms Hillhouse Capital Management and Hopu Investment Management to study detailed information on the business, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The industrial property developer, which has a market value of US$8.8 billion (S$12.3 billion), also granted due diligence to Blackstone Group and a separate Warburg Pincus-led investor group, the people said.
Warburg Pincus is bidding together with its portfolio company E-Shang Redwood, known as ESR, according the people. GLP said in a Singapore exchange filing Monday that a special committee of independent directors was in discussions with "several parties" that will be invited to conduct due diligence.
Purchasing GLP would allow an acquirer to take advantage of a boom in demand for warehouse space from e-commerce companies such as Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com. GLP said in December that it hired JPMorgan Chase to advise on a strategic review requested by its largest shareholder, sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Shares of GLP fell 2.9 per cent to S$2.66 at the close Tuesday in Singapore. Representatives for Blackstone, GLP, Hillhouse and Warburg Pincus declined to comment, while officials at Hopu didn't immediately answer phone calls seeking comment.
A person who answered the phone at ESR's Singapore office said nobody was immediately available to comment. A representative for the company didn't immediately reply to e-mailed questions.
ESR was formed through last year's merger of E-Shang Cayman Ltd., started in 2011 by Warburg Pincus and two Chinese entrepreneurs, and Redwood Group Asia Pte. The company has more than 7.3 million square meters (79 million square feet) of logistics property projects owned and under development in China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, according to a press release this month.
