AIG Global, Korean Investors Form $1B Industrial JV

Image by falco via Pixabay.com

AIG Global Real Estate and LB Asset Management, the latter on behalf of three Korean institutional investors, have created a joint venture that has acquired an 8.6 million-square-foot portfolio of U.S. industrial real estate assets valued at more than $1 billion, AIG GRE announced Monday.

The portfolio comprises 86 industrial properties primarily located across the Southeast. They will be managed by AIG GRE, the global real estate equity investment manager of American International Group Inc.

READ ALSO: Why Industrial Space Demand Exceeds Expectations

LB’s website indicates that the Korean company has a 30 percent stake in the portfolio.

The portfolio is 98 percent leased and spans key industrial markets in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

As of press time, AIG GRE had not provided Commercial Property Executive with requested additional information.

In a prepared statement, Doug Tymins, president & CEO of AIG Global Real Estate, noted the ongoing “in-migration and population growth driving the relocation of major business and research centers” to the Southeast, along with the impact of e-commerce, as the main drivers behind the region’s positive industrial outlook.

LB Managing Director Yun Cho called the joint venture “a significant milestone for our firm” and added that “The portfolio … provides an opportunity to achieve immediate scale in the U.S. industrial market.”

JLL Securities served as financial advisor to AIG Global Real Estate.

From Seoul to everywhere

Founded in 2016, LB Asset Management is based in Seoul, South Korea. In addition to numerous assets in South Korea, the company’s real estate funds (which now number more than 20) have invested—just since 2019—in student housing in Australia, an Amazon fulfillment center in Scotland, Samsung Electronics’ European headquarters (in Chertsey, U.K.), a logistics portfolio in Sweden, an office property in Prague and multifamily assets in Tokyo.

Despite COVID’s disruption, South Korean investment in U.S. CRE increased in 2020, to the point that South Korea was the second-largest cross-border investor in U.S. real estate last year.