ESR and BW form joint venture for My Phuoc 4 IP in Vietnam

My Phuoc 4 IP will have approximately 240,000sq.m of logistics and light industrial facilities

The partnership marks ESR’s entry into Vietnam, expanding the group’s Asia-Pacific footprint in the high-growth Southeast Asia region.

My Phuoc 4 Industrial Park (the "Park"), which will have a total of approximately 240,000 square metres of logistics and light industrial facilities upon completion, is located north of Ho Chi Minh City in the strategic Binh Duong market, a leading hub of industrial development in Southern Vietnam.

The "Park" will have the ability to cater to a wide variety of local and international tenants, given its prime location with excellent motorway access and connectivity to densely populated areas, major industrial clusters, ports, and airports.

BW is currently developing My Phuoc 4 the "Park" with completion scheduled for August. Besides, ESR will work with BW on the leasing of the "Park" leveraging its strong roster of customers. Vietnam is an important market in ESR's strategy and looks forward to welcoming customers to My Phuoc 4.

Jeffrey Shen and Stuart Gibson, ESR co-founders and co-CEOs, remarked that Vietnam’s industrial and logistics real estate sector is coming of age. It is one of the most promising markets within Southeast Asia, benefitting from a range of favourable macro-economic factors including its high and stable GDP growth rate, growing income level, and thus emerging middle class, rapid urbanisation, and infrastructure development.

“We are most pleased to make our first foray into the Vietnamese market with this meaningful joint venture with BW, the leading local logistics and industrial developer in Vietnam, which sets a strong foundation for our growth plans in the country,” they said.

Lance Li, CEO of BW said that, “E-commerce is a very important positive tailwind that drives the demand for logistics real estate in Vietnam. We are very delighted to work hand-in-hand with ESR, leveraging our collective relationships, experience, and track record in development and management, to capitalise on opportunities for this project.”

“As the Vietnamese industrial and logistics property sector is entering a strong cycle of growth, BW is focused on continuing to be a pioneer in the market and accelerating our growth trajectory on the back of both greenfield developments, acquisitions, and joint ventures. We believe that the firm is well-positioned to capture the increasing opportunities as the demand for industrial spaces continues to grow,” he added.

As a key consumer and manufacturing market with a population of close to 100 million, Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia. Revenue from e-commerce is estimated to have reached approximately $7 billion in 2020, implying a growth of 46 per cent over 2019 alone, thereby fuelling the demand for modern, primely located logistics facilities.

Vietnam’s logistics real estate is expected to grow another 14-16 per cent annually over the next three years on the back of insufficient supply in the key southern logistics hubs, including Binh Duong and strong expected e-commerce growth of 34 per cent over the next five years. Vietnam has also been a key beneficiary of the reallocation of manufacturing and supply chain activities to Southeast Asia.

This transformative shift has been further accelerated by the supply chain disruptions that have resulted on account of COVD-19. Vietnam’s best-in-class response to the pandemic and successful public health outcome has ensured that the country continues to benefit from increasing manufacturer interest from across regions.

Founded by Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm, and Becamex, a leading industrial infrastructure developer in Vietnam – BW is Vietnam’s largest and fastest growing logistics and industrial real estate developer with over 5 million sqm of prime industrial land under control across over 25 projects in 20 prime economic locations across the country.

BW has been focused on developing light industrial and modern warehouses to capture the outsized manufacturing growth, increasing domestic consumption and the rapid growth in e-commerce. BW has secured equity commitments in excess of US$500 million from its shareholders and has formed strategic partnerships with key e-commerce and logistics customers to serve one of the fastest growing markets in Asia. For more information on BW, please visit: bwindustrial.com.

ESR is the largest APAC focused logistics real estate platform by gross floor area (GFA) and by value of the assets owned directly and by the funds and investment vehicles it manages. ESR and the funds and investment vehicles it manages are backed by some of the world’s preeminent investors including APG, CPP Investments, JD.com, Oxford Properties, PGGM and SK Holdings. The ESR platform spans major economies across the APAC region, including the People’s Republic of China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and India.

As of 31 December 2020, the fair value of the properties directly held by ESR and the assets under management with respect to the funds and investment vehicles managed by ESR recorded approximately US$30 billion, and GFA of properties completed and under development as well as GFA to be built on land held for future development comprised over 20 million sqm in total.

Listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited in November 2019, ESR is a constituent of the FTSE Global Equity Index Series (Large Cap), Hang Seng Composite Index and MSCI Hong Kong Index. For more information on ESR, please visit: esr.com.