Goldman Sachs, Warburg Pincus-backed firm buy $488 mln of Chinese logistics assets

By Kane Wu

HONG KONG, July 13 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group's asset management arm and a company co-founded by private equity firm Warburg Pincus said on Tuesday they had jointly acquired logistics assets in China worth $488 million.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management and New Ease, a new economy infrastructure investor, developer and manager, said they bought two collections of logistics real estate projects in gateway cities throughout China.

The assets include institutional-grade, modern warehouse properties in the south eastern Chinese city of Kunshan and central Chinese cities Zhengzhou and Sanhe, and properties in central China's Henan and Hubei provinces to be developed into facilities to meet the demand from e-commerce companies and third-party logistics providers, the two investors said in a statement.

Their investment comes at a time when China's logistics sector is consolidating after the COVID-19 pandemic boosted e-commerce and supply chain demands.

The two companies did not disclose the sellers of the logistics assets.

In February, private equity firm FountainVest Partners struck a deal to buy Chinese logistics firm CJ Rokin from South Korea's CJ Logistics Corp that gave Rokin an enterprise value of 6.9 billion yuan ($1.07 billion), after winning a competitive auction.

"The continued development of China's economy, especially through the rapid pace of advanced digitalization of commerce, has further accelerated the development of the logistics warehousing industry and accompanying integrated services," said Luke Wei, Goldman asset management's managing director.

Headquartered in Shanghai, New Ease is managing a portfolio of over six million square meters of projects that are in operation or under development. It has a total asset under management of about $5 billion and established multiple ventures with global leading investors. (Reporting by Kane Wu; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)