By Julie Zhu and Sumeet Chatterjee
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Vanke, the country's No.2 homebuilder by sales, is in talks to join a Chinese consortium led by Hopu Investment Management and Hillhouse Capital Group to bid for Global Logistic Properties, three sources said.
Shenzhen-based Vanke has been in discussions with the Hopu-Hillhouse consortium for a couple of weeks, said one source, adding that the bidding group was talking to at least two other potential investors from China.
The consortium, also backed by the Singapore-listed firm's CEO Ming Mei, plans to set up an investment fund for its bid, two sources said. Potential new backers, including Vanke, are considering joining the race as limited partners (LPs) of the fund, rather than potential equity holders in GLP.
All the sources, familiar with the talks, declined to be named because the information was not public.
Vanke, Hopu, GLP declined to comment while Hillhouse did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
GLP, which is backed by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Ltd and whose customers include Amazon.com and JD.com, said last week that it had asked short-listed bidders to present firm proposals by the end of June.
Private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Blackstone Group LP are among the bidders that were picked by GLP to move to a new phase of the bidding process and examine the company's financials, Reuters reported in February.
GLP, which has a market capitalization of about $10 billion, earns two-thirds of its revenue from China, where it has 15.8 million square meters of leasable or completed logistics facilities on lease.
Vanke's interest in GLP stems from the fact that it has also been diversifying into warehousing over the past two years as the property development business struggles amid intensifying competition. The company, which has a logistics joint venture with Blackstone, posted a lower first-quarter profit.
Vanke has yet to finalise the terms with the Hopu-Hillhouse consortium and the composition of the bidders could be subject to changes later, two sources said.
JPMorgan is advising GLP's special committee on the proposals.
(Reporting by Julie Zhu and Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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