SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Singapore's Mapletree Investments has acquired two portfolios of logistics assets in the United States for about US$3 billion (S$4.1 billion), boosting its presence there.
The properties will form the seed portfolio for a US logistics private fund - Mapletree US Logistics Private Trust, the real estate and investment company said on Thursday (Sept 30).
Mr Michael Smith, Mapletree's regional chief executive of Europe and the US, said: "The US logistics sector is among the best performing and most resilient of all the real estate markets in which Mapletree operates globally.
"By combining these recently acquired assets with 14 logistics facilities that we currently own, we have attained sufficient scale and investor interest to create a fourth US-focused private fund with a fully seeded portfolio of 155 logistics assets."
The first portfolio, acquired in July 2021, comprises 24 assets totalling 6.1 million sq ft of net lettable area across Dallas, Memphis, Greater Chicago, Central Florida and Boston.
It has an occupancy rate of 98.9 per cent and a weighted average lease to expiry (WALE) of 3.3 years.
The second portfolio was acquired in September this year. It includes 117 assets spanning 22.3 million sq ft of net lettable area across Greater Chicago, the Carolinas, Memphis, Houston and Washington DC/Baltimore. The portfolio is 94.1 per cent occupied and has a WALE of 4.1 years.
Mr Nicholas Mak, head of research & consultancy at ERA, said Mapletree's latest acquisitions were "a good move".
"Many of the low-lying fruits in the local market have already been plucked. The company will have to look overseas for more opportunities to expand its portfolio, while still generating stable income at an acceptable risk level," he said.
The pair of portfolios' tenant base includes companies in third-party logistics, consumer goods, wholesale and e-commerce sectors, among others.
With the acquisitions, Mapletree will have about $25.5 billion worth of logistics assets under management, with an estimated net lettable area of 224 million sq ft across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US.
The real estate and investment company will also hold about US$14.8 billion of real estate across the US.
