The number of shipping containers worldwide is expected to double in the next decade to 796 million standard 20-foot units, according to Containerisation International, a shipping news provider. Asia accounts for more than half of all shipping containers.
Demand for distribution centers in China and India may grow by as much as 25 percent a year, and up to 10 percent in Japan, Moghadam said.
“In a mature economy like Japan, a major opportunity is helping companies to restructure their supply chain,” Moghadam said. “In China and India, the economies are going to be the growth engine.”
In July, AMB paid about $200 million for eight properties in Japan covering 86,000 square meters, or 926,000 square feet. It plans to triple its investment in China to $300 million next year.
AMB, which entered Japan in 2003, owns 31 distribution sites in the nation, with 900,000 square meters of space in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, and 400,000 square meters under development, according to the funds Web site.
AMBs $2.2 billion Japan fund was established in June 2005 to invest in distribution facilities near airports, highways and seaports. Its customers include Sagawa Express and Nippon Express, respectively the second- and third-largest Japanese parcel delivery companies.
ProLogis said on Oct. 16 that it would double its Japan portfolio to %26#165;1.12 trillion, or $9.8 billion, in the next three years. The companys investment in the rest of Asia is to double to $2.5 billion this year.
AMB and ProLogis account for less 10 percent of the global market for industrial property, Moghadam said.
“All of us have the opportunity to grow our business by basically capturing the other 90 percent of business that we dont already have,” he said. “There is lots of room for us to play our game.”
REIT plans share sale CapitaMall Trust, the largest real estate investment trust in Singapore, may raise as much as 500 million Singapore dollars, or $344 million, in a share sale to pay debt and fund acquisitions.
CapitaMall will sell as many as 137.7 million new shares to institutional investors at between 3.63 dollars and 3.70 dollars apiece, it said in a statement late Monday, representing a discount of as much as 3.5 percent from the closing price Monday of 3.76 dollars.
The trust will reduce its debt to 33 percent of assets from 41 percent, allowing it to borrow more as it seeks out acquisitions in the Singapore shopping mall industry. The central bank of Singapore allows real estate investment trusts, or REITs, with a credit rating to raise debt to 60 percent of assets.
The funds “provide greater financial flexibility to pursue yield accretive acquisition opportunities in Singapore,” Pua Seck Guan, chief executive at the trusts management company, said in the statement.
The trust said it would repay its debt of 453.6 million dollars, which it took to buy bonds for three Singapore malls and a 20 percent share of CapitaRetail China Trust, a property trust that owns shopping centers in China.
CapitaMall plans to raise 350 million dollars in the initial sale, and may issue a further 150 million dollars of shares “in the event of a favorable response,” it said in the statement.
“Its getting quite challenging to buy good shopping malls in Singapore,” said Nicholas Mak, research director at Knight Frank, a property consulting company in Singapore. “Most of them have already been acquired. Others are owned by listed property funds or the owners are simply not that keen to sell.”
The stock has risen 29 percent this year, the second-best performing REIT among 17 trusts traded on the Singapore exchange, which have an average return of 6.8 percent this year.
Stock Investment January 23rd, 2008
