Dutch pension investor APG has backed ESR Cayman in launching the ESR China Development Platform (ECDP), with an initial equity commitment of $1bn (€848m).

The partners are committed to a potential investment capacity of up to $4bn for the platform which focuses on developing and owning logistics facilities in major logistics hubs across Tier 1 and Tier 1.5 Chinese cities.

“The China logistics sector continues to be a critical part of the China growth story,� said Graeme Torre, APG’s head of real estate Asia-Pacific.

“We believe that building new assets designed to meet environmental standards and ever-changing occupier demand is one of the better ways to create a resilient portfolio for long-term performance.

“To do this, it is essential to have development partners that offer first-class sourcing and execution capabilities, which is why we have embarked on our second China-focused platform with ESR�.

APG established what was then known as E-Shang Star with ESR in 2013.

Since then, it has supported ESR through half a dozen platforms in China, Korea and Japan.

Jeffrey Shen and Stuart Gibson, co-founders and co-CEOs of ESR, said: “Capital partner support has been key to the growth of ESR’s new economy real estate platform.

“The acceleration of e-commerce continues to drive growth in China’s logistics market. What’s more, structural shifts in supply chain management and consumers’ shopping habits and lifestyle changes are reshaping the market.�

They said these trends were opening new development and investment opportunities to ESR and its capital partners as demand for advanced, large-scale and well-located logistics assets became even greater.

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