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An acquisition offers a chance for bidders to grab control of
Asia's biggest warehouse operator, which counts Amazon <AMZN.O>
among its clients and is benefiting from rising demand for
modern logistics facilities, driven by a boom in e-commerce
business.
Friday marked the deadline for parties to submit binding offers
for GLP. Reuters was not able to confirm if more than two bids
were submitted.
At current valuations, a successful transaction will rank as the
largest Asian buyout by private equity groups, which are
increasingly targeting bigger takeovers after raising record
funds, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Singapore-listed GLP was thrust into the spotlight late last
year after sovereign wealth fund GIC, which owns a 37 percent
stake, nudged it to start a strategic review of its business.
JPMorgan was then hired by GLP as its financial adviser.
GLP's shares have since soared nearly 50 percent to the highest
in more than three years.
After months of negotiations with a special committee of GLP's
independent directors, the race has narrowed to between a group
led by Chinese private equity firms Hopu Investment Management
and Hillhouse Capital Group, with the support of GLP CEO Ming
Mei, and a rival consortium headed by Warburg Pincus and its
logistics partner e-Shang Redwood, the sources said.
GLP, GIC, Warburg Pincus, Hopu, Hillhouse and a spokeswoman for
the consortium declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
The sources declined to be identified as they were not
authorized to speak about the deal.
Hopu's founder Fang Fenglei, one of China's best known
dealmakers, is a GLP board member, and Hopu, partly owns GLP's
China business. The Chinese consortium has also brought in
co-investors such as property developer China Vanke <000002.SZ>
and Ping An Insurance Group of China <2318.HK> for a bid for
GLP, sources have said. "The management group and Warburg Pincus
are the most serious bidders. Some other parties are keen on
picking up specific assets and not the entire company," said one
source. Concerns over the transparency of the sale process and
business ties of the management-backed consortium have forced
some potential bidders to re-evaluate their interest and sparked
complaints to GIC, sources said. Last week, GLP said it was in
discussions with shortlisted bidders and had taken measures to
alleviate potential conflicts of interest following a Financial
Times report that almost all the potential bidders were dropping
out due to concerns an insider bid will make other submissions
pointless. Some of the potential bidders such as Blackstone
Group <BX.N> and Asian buyout firm RRJ Capital were unlikely to
submit individual bids, sources said.
Blackstone declined to comment. RRJ did not respond to an
emailed request for comment. GLP owns and operates a $41 billion
portfolio of industrial assets spread across China, Japan,
Brazil and the United States. It gets two-thirds of its revenue
from China, where it has a dominant market position. Around 20
lenders are working with three consortia in the hope of securing
a role on the deal, IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, reported
last week.
(Reporting by Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE and Kane Wu and Carol
Zhong in HONG KONG; Additional reporting by Julie Zhu in HONG
KONG; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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