GLP

GLP: ($2.74) Alibaba affirms Brazil’s attractiveness Armed with nearly ~US$25b cash following its mammoth IPO in Sep, Alibaba is keen to expand and is now training its sights on the fast-growing Brazil market by acquiring local, according to Brazil’s Exame magazine. Alibaba already has a sizeable Brazilian presence through its AliExpress site - currently ranked the seventh most visited e-commerce in the country. In fact, according to research firm, comScore, AliExpress received more than 12m hits from Brazilian consumers in Jul, up more than 8-fold from a year ago. Meanwhile, Alibaba has teamed up with Correrios, Brazil’s state-owned postal services company, to facilitate cross-border trading by SMEs on both sides, using its Alipay electronic payment system. If Alibaba does indeed plan to move aggressively into Brazil, this would be a strong testament to GLP’s foresight in making early investments in the country. GLP has a property portfolio across Japan, China and Brazil worth a total of US$19.6b, with Brazil accounting for 13% of group NAV. In addition, GLP has US$2.4b of assets under management via Brazil JVs under its fund management platform. With Alibaba already a key client and partner of GLP in China, it would make sense for Alibaba to once again tap of GLP’s proven logistics development expertise for its expansion in Brazil. GLP already has a strong growth story premised on its China development roll-out. With improving prospects in Brazil as a bonus, sentiment in GLP could be lifted further. The street continues to remain bullish on the stock, as reflected by the 14 Buys, 3 Holds and 1 Sell, with consensus TP of $3.27. GLP shares are up 0.7% at $2.74 today.