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Nicholas Grove is a Morningstar journalist.

Goodman Group (GMG) has set up a 50/50 joint venture with the Abu Dhabi Investment Council that will initially target US$1 billion of investments in the Japanese logistics market.

The Goodman Japan Development Partnership (GJDP) has a strategy to develop modern logistics facilities and will launch with an initial investment in three development projects in Tokyo Bay and Osaka.

The developments have a planned total gross leasable area of 250,000 square metres and an estimated end value in excess of US$700 million, Goodman said in a statement.

Also on Friday, the company announced it had successfully closed the stage 1 equity raising for the Goodman Japan Core Fund (GJCF) with three global institutional investors, increasing GJCF's external equity commitments to over US$100 million.

A second stage is scheduled to close later in the calendar year to facilitate a number of additional institutions who are currently in due diligence, the company said.

Goodman Group CEO Greg Goodman said the new development partnership provides the company with significant capacity to accelerate its expansion plans in Japan "in a prudent and measured manner".

"Furthermore, we are very pleased to welcome new investors into GJCF which is well-placed to take advantage of structural changes in the Japanese logistics market, leading to increased customer demand for modern logistics space with supply in key locations remaining constrained," he said.

Last month, Goodman Group announced a 21 per cent rise in operating profit for fiscal 2012 to $463 million, in line with recent guidance.

Morningstar senior equities analyst Tony Sherlock said the highlight of the company's full-year results announcement was guidance for 13 per cent growth in fiscal 2013 operating profit to $524 million, underpinned by growth in assets under management.

"With Goodman's expanding global platform and strong reputation, the group is well-positioned to use third-party equity to fund its development pipeline and grow assets under management," he said.