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The shift toward online shopping is a formidable trend that shows few signs of slowing anytime soon, but outside of Amazon (which appears to be priced for perfection) there aren’t a lot of good ways to gain exposure. JP Morgan’s real estate arm has found one. The company is playing the ecommerce trend by investing in industrial real estate, but not the typical warehouses that Amazon and others use to store their goods. JP Morgan is buying freight-transportation properties. These are properties that are used to move, prepare, or sort goods for delivery. Think truck terminals and parcel-processing facilities.
For investors in public markets, UPS and Fedex offer exposure to assets that are similar to those JP Morgan is investing in.
Bloomberg has more.
“Our investment in the Realterm Logistics portfolio not only allows us to increase our exposure to the U.S. industrial market, but it also diversifies our existing industrial investments,’’ Firth said.
The properties are used to move, prepare or sort goods for delivery, such as a truck terminal or parcel-processing facility, as opposed to warehouses where inventory is kept until it’s ready to be shipped to a retail store, said Robert Fordi, chief executive officer of Realterm’s logistics unit. As online purchases increase, the need for these facilities will grow, said Fordi.
The Annapolis, Maryland-based logistics operation company now manages more than $3 billion of assets.
Jeremy Jones, CFA
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