ESR acquisition of ARA to make it largest real asset manager in APAC

ESR Cayman Limited is set to acquire ARA Asset Management for US$5.2b.

ESR Cayman Limited, in bourse disclosures to the Singapore Exchange and Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, announced that it is set to fully acquire ARA Asset Management for US$5.2b (approximately SG$7.03b or HK$40.43b).

The combined assets under management of the two firms are US$129b, more than twice of the next largest asset manager in the Asia Pacific region.

This would also make ESR the third-largest listed real estate investment manager in the world.

Under the proposed transaction, ARA would become a subsidiary of ESR.

ESR would also acquire ARA’s controlling stake in LOGOS, a leading logistics and data centre real estate developer and fund manager in the region.

“By creating a one-of-a-kind closed-loop solutions ecosystem for capital partners with the addition of ARA, we can leverage our perpetual capital vehicles to help them divest these assets and captively redeploy back into New Economy real estate via ESR and LOGOS, the largest New Economy real estate platform in the Asia Pacific with over US$50b of AUM. As we usher in this new era of real estate, the enlarged ESR Group is even better positioned to capture this outsized market opportunity,” said ESR Chairman Jeffery Perlman.

The deal is set to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021 or the first quarter of 2022.