Mapletree eyes mid-2026 first close for US$1.8 billion emerging Asia logistics development fund

[SINGAPORE] Mapletree expects to achieve the first close of its Mapletree Emerging Growth Asia Logistics Private Trust (Mega) by mid-2026, with a second close planned later in the year.

“We have secured equity commitments from high-quality institutional investors, including a sovereign wealth fund, a pension fund and a national investment company,” Ng Kiat, Mapletree’s regional chief executive officer for logistics development in Asia-Pacific, told The Business Times.

Mega was first announced in June 2025, and was initially targeted to close by the end of that year.

“Mapletree required some time to curate assets and identify pipelines across the three markets suitable for the fund investors. Also, as this is a relatively large fundraise in an emerging market, investors needed more time to understand the markets and underwrite their investments accordingly,” said Ng.

The closed-end logistics fund will hold development assets with total assets under management (AUM) of up to US$1.8 billion when completed. Returns for the fund are expected to be in the “mid-teens”.

The private fund, one of a series of Mapletree logistics development private funds, follows the syndication of two similar funds in China and Japan over the last few years: the Mapletree China Logistics Investment Private Fund (MCLIP) and the Mapletree Japan Investment Country Private Trust (MAJIC).

An earlier Japan fund invested in 12 Grade A logistics development assets, the Mapletree Japan Logistics Development Fund, launched in 2014 with committed capital of about S$630 million and “outperformed targeted returns upon exit in 2020”, Mapletree said. The fund achieved a return of 1.8 times equity multiple and a net internal rate of return of 23.7 per cent.

Mega will invest in logistics developments across Malaysia, Vietnam and India, where there is structural undersupply of institutional-grade logistics space and demand driven by e-commerce growth, urbanisation and supply-chain shifts.

The fund’s target allocation is approximately 40 per cent each to Malaysia and Vietnam, and 20 per cent to India.

“The fund has already secured an initial seeded portfolio comprising two projects in Vietnam, four projects in Malaysia and one project in India,” said Ng.

“A strong pipeline of development projects has also been secured by the sponsor, who will offer them to Mega when planning and building approvals, as well as construction costs, are finalised.”

She added that the fund will continue sourcing and acquiring high-quality logistics developments to ensure committed capital is deployed into projects with strong fundamentals and growth potential during the fund’s two-year investment period.

Mapletree’s logistics development business in Asia-Pacific oversees 23 logistics development projects spanning 2.7 million square metres (sq m) in net lettable area, with a portfolio value of S$2 billion.

The business unit focuses on emerging and growth markets, including Australia, India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Hong Kong. Its pipeline currently comprises committed development projects with total development costs of S$5.8 billion.

Recent acquisitions include a 44,318 sq m site in Hong Kong’s Tsing Yi area that will be developed into a Grade A ramp-up warehouse facility, which Mapletree bought for HK$3.7 billion (about S$600 million).

The project is targeted at both international and local logistics tenants. Construction and foundation works are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2026, with completion slated for the second half of 2028.

In India, Mapletree recently acquired a 98,500 sq m land parcel in Tamil Nadu that will be developed into Grade A warehouses with a gross floor area of about 68,700 sq m. It also completed Mapletree (Hoskote) Logistics Park in Bengaluru, which marked the group’s inaugural logistics development project in India.

Institutional investor interest in emerging Asia remains strong, said Ng.

Vietnam’s logistics market has continued to expand, with total warehouse space reaching about 8.2 million sq m, up 14.7 per cent year on year, Ng said. Rental levels in Vietnam have remained resilient, particularly for modern logistics facilities, amid strong demand from manufacturers and third-party logistics players.

Mapletree’s logistics portfolio in Vietnam currently comprises around 1.1 million sq m of leasable warehouse space, making it the country’s largest owner of modern warehouse space, with logistics AUM of about US$600 million as at Mar 31, 2026.

In 2024, Ng said, the group was deepening its presence in new regions such as Bac Giang in North Vietnam and Dong Nai in the south, as land supply in traditional logistics hubs became limited and relatively expensive.

As part of its capital strategy, the asset manager in 2024 divested Mapletree Logistics Park Binh Duong Phase 3 and Mapletree Logistics Park Hung Yen 1A to Mapletree Logistics Trust at a total transaction value of about S$68.4 million.

Malaysia’s logistics market continues to face a structural undersupply of modern Grade A facilities, as economic expansion, consumption growth and e-commerce support demand.

Ng added that manufacturing investments linked to the “China+N” strategy have also boosted demand for Grade A, multinational corporation-standard logistics space, with foreign manufacturing investment in Malaysia rising 13 per cent year on year in 2025.

“There is a significantly lower prime logistics space per capita in Malaysia, which results in inherent room for growth to meet rising demand and progression to quality warehouses from aged stock.”

Only about 17 per cent of Malaysia’s 84.1 million square feet of logistics space was of Grade A quality in 2024, noted Mapletree.

Mapletree is currently the largest owner of modern logistics assets in Malaysia, where it owns about 600,000 sq m of leasable warehouse space. It expects this to grow to around two million sq m upon completion of its development pipeline in the medium term.

Since entering Malaysia in 2006, the group’s logistics AUM has grown to about US$1.2 billion as at end-March 2026.

Ng noted that developing logistics assets across emerging Asia markets comes with various regulatory and operational complexities.

“In India, for instance, this is compounded by inherent property and land title-related nuances, considering that most land titles in India have decades-old histories,” she said. “We take planning and development risks, but not title or ownership risks.”