SHANGHAI (Reuters) – D&J China, an industrial real estate platform co-founded by Warburg Pincus, has merged with logistics property developer and operator New Ease China, creating an $11 billion group to invest in China’s new economy infrastructure such as refrigerated logistics, data centres and life science parks.
The combined entity, named DNE Group, also raised $1.5 billion from investors including Partners Group, StepStone Group and Sequoia Capital, DNE said in a statement on Thursday.
Warburg Pincus also participated in the latest funding round, as the U.S. private equity giant steps up investment in China’s new economy infrastructure.
Beijing has positioned “new infrastructure” construction as a key pillar of its post-pandemic economic recovery, encouraging big investment in the building blocks of China’s digital future – from data centres to modern manufacturing parks.
“With the continued transformation of China’s economy and the rapid development of new economy, we see ample room for growth in the fields of new infrastructure,” Sun Dongping, CEO of DNE, said in the statement.
DNE, which manages over $11 billion of infrastructure assets, has also set up a private equity investment platform to invest in tech companies that complement the ecosystem, Sun said.
D&J was founded by Sun and Warburg Pincus in 2014, and invests in modern manufacturing parks, life science parks and IT parks in China’s major cities.
Warburg Pincus, whose president is former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, is also accelerating investment in China’s urban renewal and redevelopment sector.
(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; editing by David Evans)
