GLP (company)

Incorporated in 2007 as Global Logistic Properties,[11] it was subsequently listed on the Singapore Exchange in 2010 by co-founders Ming Mei and Jeffrey Howard Schwartz.[12][13] Schwartz and Mei had both worked for American logistics real estate investment trust company Prologis; Schwartz was a chief executive and Mei launched the company’s operations in China.[14] When Schwartz stepped down from Prologis in November 2008, he and Mei partnered with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC to purchase Prologis’ assets in China and Japan for $1.3 billion.[15][14]

GLP was listed on the Singapore Exchange in October 2010, raising S$3.45 billion ($2.7 billion) in its initial public offering.[6][14]

Through a joint venture with GIC, China Investment Corporation and CPP Investment Board, GLP expanded to Latin America in 2012 by purchasing over 30 logistics assets in Brazil for $1.45 billion.[14] The same year it listed a $1.3 billion Japanese REIT on the Tokyo Stock Exchange; at the time it was Japan’s largest real estate IPO.[14]

On November 19, 2014, co-founder and deputy chairman Schwartz died at the age of 55.[16]

After its 2015 U.S. acquisitions of IndCor Properties from The Blackstone Group for $8.1 billion[7] and 200 U.S. warehouses for $4.55 billion,[12] GLP continued to expand globally with the $2.8 billion acquisition of Gazeley, a company that owns warehouses and distribution parks throughout Europe and North America.[17]

In 2017 GLP put itself up for sale in a bid to go private.[18] The auction for the company - initially valued at $10 billion - was subject to criticism after it only attracted two bidders - Warburg Pincus and a Chinese consortium that included Bank of China, China Life Insurance Company, HOPU Investment Management and GLP chief executive Mei.[14][18] Warburg Pincus raised concerns about a 2014 agreement that gave Chinese state-owned enterprises one-third control of GLP’s China assets in exchange for a $2.5 billion investment claiming the provision gave the Chinese consortium veto power over the China assets.[14][19] Several potential investors opted not to bid, saying the process lacked transparency and Mei’s involvement gave the consortium an advantage.[19][18] In July 2017, the Chinese consortium won the bid to acquire GLP and take the company private for S$16 billion ($11.6 billion).[4] More than 96 percent of the company’s shareholders voted for GLP to delist from the Singapore Stock Exchange in November 2017; it was officially delisted on January 22, 2018.[20]

Global Logistic Properties changed its name to the acronym GLP in 2018 because its mission expanded.[13] In spring of 2018, GLP established the $1.6 billion Hidden Hill Modern Logistics Private Equity Fund to invest in technology solutions such as robotics, automation and big-data sectors to improve efficiency in the logistics industry.[21][9]

GLP sold about 1,300 of its U.S. warehouses to The Blackstone Group in June 2019 for $18.7 billion.[7] The Wall Street Journal called it “the largest private real-estate transaction ever.”[7]

As of April 2019, GLP was run by Mei as chief executive.[22]

In March 2020, GLP and Golden Lincoln Holdings offered $930 million to take consumer goods supplier Li & Fung private.[23]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company opened 110 of its logistics parks in China for the storage and transfer of healthcare equipment.[24]