Allianz continues to expand its logistics footprint in Asia-Pacific growth markets. Following the investment in China earlier in the week, Allianz announced today that it has partnered with ESR Group to establish an investment program targeting the logistics market in India. This marks Allianz's second real estate investment program in India, which was conducted by Allianz Real Estate, the US$67.5 billion real estate investment and asset manager within the Allianz Group, on behalf of several Allianz companies.

This deal forms part of Allianz's strategy to allocate approximately 50% of the Asia-Pacific real estate investment exposure to growth markets.

The proposed investment program will start with an immediate equity commitment of US$225 million, to be funded on a 50:50 basis by Allianz and ESR. This would subsequently be converted into a US$1 billion assets under management platform.

The program's strategy is to leverage structural trends in tier one and selective tier two cities to build a long term, cash flow positive logistics portfolio by acquiring a blend of develop-to-core, forward purchases, and stabilized or stabilizing assets.

The eight key target cities are Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and National Capital Region ("Delhi").

Says Rushabh Desai, Asia-Pacific CEO of Allianz Real Estate, "This is the second time we are collaborating with ESR in the Asia-Pacific region. They have built a best-in-class team in India to take advantage of the favorable environment for logistics. The pipeline indicates a strong start to the program."

Allianz now has exposure to logistics investments across four countries in the Asia-Pacific region, namely China, India, Japan, and Australia.