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akarta-listed property and construction company Surya Semesta Internusa (SSIA) is looking to strengthen its portfolio in the warehouse business, having established a joint venture with two foreign companies to work on its '€œtechnopark'€ projects in its West Java industrial estate and other potential cities nationwide.

SSIA announced on Wednesday that it has set up a joint venture with Japan-based Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Thailand-based TICON Industrial Connection Plc to establish SLP Surya TICON Internusa, a new company with a focus on constructing, leasing and operating warehouses and ready-to-use factories.

According to the company'€™s documentation, the authorized capital of the new entity is around US$185.6 million, while its issued and paid-up capital is around $46.4 million.

SSIA owns a 50 percent stake in SLP, while its foreign partners hold 25 percent each.

As its initial project, the joint venture will work on SSIA'€™s Suryacipta Technopark project, which is located within the company'€™s Suryacipta City of Industry in Karawang, West Java '€” having acquired the 22 hectares of land from the 567-ha industrial estate.

SSIA'€™s general manager of finances and accounting, Sony Satianegara, said that the new entity would disburse about $75 million in investments to develop the technopark, which includes a sum to purchase the plot of land.

With the issued and paid-up capital already in hand, Sony said that the new entity would source additional loans amounting to around $28 million to meet its capital needs, probably from foreign lenders.

SLP is planning to build a 146,000-square-meter industrial compound consisting of warehouses, ready-to-use factories as well as commercial building. The first phase of the project, comprising 35,000 sqm of land, concluded construction early in 2014 with a current occupancy rate hitting 81 percent.

SLP is expected to resume the second phase '€” comprising 26,000 sqm '€” this year, with the whole project slated to finish in 2017.

'€œOnce of the project concludes, we expect to see recurring income from the warehouse project reach around Rp 150 billion [$11.6 million],'€ he said.

Johannes Suriadjaja, president director of SSIA, said that the company hoped to forge a long-term partnership through SLP and was eyeing other cities as places to develop warehouse businesses after the Karawang venture.

'€œThere are other cities that also have promising potential, such as Medan [North Sumatra], Surabaya [East Java] and Makassar [South Sulawesi],'€ he told reporters

Mitsui & Co.'€™s general manager of second overseas business development department, Eiichi Tanabe, and TICON managing director Virapan Pulges said they were confident that the demand was there for SLP'€™s projects, saying that enthusiasm from Japanese investors and TICON customers to invest in Indonesia'€™s growing economy is high.

Mitsui & Co. is one of Japan'€™s largest general trading companies, operating in various kinds of industries through 142 branches in 66 countries. It is part of Mitsui, one of the world'€™s biggest business groups.

TICON, meanwhile, is Thailand'€™s biggest provider of factories and warehouses for lease or sale, operating 2.2 million sqm of industrial property in 50 locations across the neighboring country.

TICON, according to a report by Reuters, plans to invest 50 billion baht ($1.54 billion) over the next five years to expand its ready-built factories and warehouses at home and in Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam, it said in late March.

Shares of SSIA '€” listed under the code SSIA in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) '€” were up by 3 percent on a daily basis to Rp 1,200 a piece at Wednesday'€™s closing following the joint venture announcement.