Gateway Capital connects with e-commerce in $800m fund
Investment manager Gateway Capital has launched a new property fund to accumulate an $800 million portfolio of major logistics facilities along the east coast, where institutional investors are jostling for exposure to some of the world’s tightest industrial markets.
The Gateway Capital Industrial and Logistics Partnership, or GILP, has been seeded with assets in Sydney and Melbourne and has won the backing of major institutions already.
The fund will focus on opportunities in areas forecast to benefit from strong tenant demand linked with the growth of e-commerce, along with other structural tailwinds for the sector, Gateway said.
The launch comes as the big global investors battle to invest in the drum-tight industrial markets of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, spurring large industrial property deals.
Two of the properties for the new Gateway fund – one at Thornleigh on Sydney’s upper north shore and the other at Sunshine in Melbourne’s west – have been sold across from holdings managed elsewhere on the Gateway platform.
Along with a third warehousing property leased to Kuehne & Nagel at Sydney’s Eastern Creek that was recently acquired from private equity giant Blackstone, the new fund’s seed portfolio has hit $186 million.
“The establishment of GILP targeting core assets complements the existing Gateway Capital funds that focus on core plus and value add opportunities, and as such provides Gateway Capital with a broader scope to seek attractive acquisition opportunities,” said Stuart Dawes, Gateway Capital’s co-founder.
“The acquisition of 12 Kangaroo Avenue, Eastern Creek, is a strong addition to the GILP portfolio, providing additional exposure to the key Sydney market whilst securing a new relationship with a leading global logistics provider.”
With about $1.4 billion in assets under management, Gateway has been refining its portfolio this year to tap institutional interest. In June, it sold down a portfolio of five industrial properties for a total of $135 million.
That followed a big acquisition early in the year when Gateway brought together a Canadian pension fund and an Asian sovereign wealth vehicle to acquire a prized $330 million logistics estate in Sydney – the largest such deal in that market in more than five years.
The Villawood property, Connect Central Sydney, in the city’s west was bought from Canadian powerhouse, Brookfield.
As Gateway presses ahead building out its new fund, the broader industrial market has been punctuated by big-ticket investments.
Stockland said in February it had closed logistics partnership deals worth about $800 million with US private equity house KKR and British funds giant M&G Real Estate. Last month, Stockland unveiled plans for a $3.5 billion multi-storey logistics hub on the site of Kogarah Golf Club in Sydney’s southern suburbs.
In July, Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com bought its first logistics hub in Australia, a facility of nearly 100,000 square metres in south-west Brisbane, as it pursues an ambition for a global network of warehouses. The deal was worth about $250 million.
