Logistics powerhouse GLP has held a second close for its open-ended GLP Japan Income Fund less than six months after holding the first close in August last year, PERE can reveal exclusively.

The firm corralled over ¥130 billion ($1.3 billion; €1 billion) from more than 20 international and domestic investors in the latest round of fundraising, including three existing JIF investors that made follow-on investments in the fund. It is understood that JIF has now reached ¥560 billion in assets under management with its second close.

The proceeds from the second close will be used to acquire three additional assets in Tokyo, in addition to other opportunities. The three new assets are understood to be coming from GLP Japan Development Venture II, a joint venture between GLP and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

“In Japan, the acquisition landscape is generally competitive; there are very limited opportunities to acquire high-quality logistics assets unless you are also a specialized developer like GLP, which gives us access to high-quality assets from our development pipeline,” said Ralf Wessel, managing director of fund management at GLP in Singapore. He pointed out that GLP had developed $3 billion-worth of assets in Japan last year and he expects the pipeline will continue to be strong in 2021.

Launched at the end of 2019, GLP Japan Income Fund is currently the largest private open-ended logistics vehicle in the country. In August 2020, the fund was seeded with 11 assets in Greater Tokyo and Osaka, reaching AUM of ¥280 billion. All 14 of the fund’s assets are fully leased and total over 1.3 million square meters of gross floor area.

With the latest close for JIF, GLP has increased its total AUM in Japan to $22 billion. The firm has also been the sponsor and manager of the country’s logistics real estate investment trust GLP J-REIT since 2012. It is also the manager for the $5.6 billion GLP Japan Development Partners III, which launched in 2018.

Also active outside of Japan, the firm added over $15 billion in AUM to its logistics strategies and launched five new logistics funds globally in the past 12 months. Wessel told PERE that GLP had experienced record high leasing in its logistics business, driven by rapidly growing e-commerce demand in 2020. “Going forward, it is not unlikely that the value of logistics assets will continue to increase as cap rates might see some further compression,” Wessel added.