Asian industrial giant GLP on Tuesday unveiled GLP Capital Partners, a newly minted fund management business investing in sectors including logistics, data centres, renewable energy and related technologies.
GCP is the fruit of a reorganisation exercise that saw Singapore-headquartered developer GLP combine its global fund management business with US-based GLP Capital Partners LP. GLPCP had been spun out of GLP in 2019 after the latter’s $18.7 billion sale of logistics assets from three of its US funds to Blackstone, in what was the largest private real estate deal at the time.
The collective transactions have resulted in the creation of GCP as a separate entity and a pure-play global alternative asset manager, GLP said in a release.
“Since founding GLP in 2009, we have never stopped pushing the boundaries of what is possible,” said co-founder and CEO Ming Z Mei. “Under this new structure, with GCP and GLP working side-by-side, GLP is strategically positioned to continue to identify, build and scale businesses in sectors that we believe are transforming the global economy.”
Founder Stays Involved
Mei has assumed the role of executive chairman of GCP and will continue in his role as CEO of GLP. Alan Yang, most recently CEO of GLPCP and previously chief investment officer of GLP, has taken on the role of CEO of GCP.
GLP co-founder and CEO Ming Z Mei
“Our new structure puts us in a position to grow GCP into one of the only truly global alternative asset managers with both a leading presence in Asia and a track record of scale and success in the US, Brazil and Europe,” Yang said.
Originally launched in 2011 as GLP’s fund management business, GCP has $125 billion in assets under management across 46 funds.
The business has increased AUM at a 26 percent compound annual growth rate since 2011, according to GLP, which styles itself as the largest Asia-based manager of real estate funds and the fourth largest globally.
Fundraising Champ
In data provider Realfin’s recent ranking of Asia-based real estate fund managers by capital raised during the five years to the end of 2022, GLP topped the table with a cumulative haul of $33.4 billion.
Coming in a distant second was Hong Kong-listed ESR with $10.2 billion, followed by Beijing-based Sino-Ocean Capital ($7.4 billion), family-run Gaw Capital Partners ($6.2 billion) and Temasek-backed CapitaLand ($5.8 billion).
GLP ranked third among real estate fund managers worldwide for the five-year period, eclipsed by North American heavyweights Blackstone ($88.3 billion in capital raised) and Brookfield ($49.8 billion). ESR was the only other Asia-based shop to crack the top 20, placing 17th.
