ARA completes acquisition of majority stake in Logos

Singapore

ARA Asset Management has taken a majority stake in logistics property firm, Logos Group. Existing shareholders include real estate investment firm, Ivanhoé Cambridge and Logos' founders, John Marsh and Trent Iliffe.

With ARA's buy-in, Macquarie Group's MIRA Real Estate has exited as a Logos shareholder.

According to a joint statement by the companies on Thursday, Logos will operate as ARA's exclusive platform for logistics assets globally, offering ARA's investors a suite of products in the private and public markets.

The deal, which was first announced last December, combines ARA's global fund management capabilities, with Logos' Asia-Pacific logistics property and development expertise. This is to create a logistics real estate development and investment management platform, the companies said.

The acquisition also comes after the competition watchdog in Singapore cleared the proposed merger between fund manager Logos China Investments and ARA Logistics, a unit of ARA Asset Management.

Founded in 2010, Logos now operates across eight countries in the Asia-Pacific, many of which ARA has a presence in. Both companies are involved in industrial real estate space for rental, specifically warehouse space, as well as property funds that invest in industrial real estate.

As part of the transaction, ARA has transferred its entire holdings in Cache Logistics Trust and the trust's manager to Logos. ARA will retain control of the trust manager through Logos. In addition, Cache Logistics Trust will also be rebranded in the coming months to align with ARA and Logos' growth plans, the companies said.

ARA group CEO John Lim said: "This acquisition marks an exciting milestone for both ARA and Logos and we look forward to expanding our logistics platform in Asia Pacific. Logos is one of the largest and fastest growing logistics real estate players in the region and its fund products are highly complementary to those of ARA."