LaSalle, Vailog set up Shanghai property venture

SHANGHAI May 20 (Reuters) - Global property investor LaSalle Investment Management said on Tuesday it has formed a joint venture with Italian developer Realty Vailog RLT.MI to buy and develop four logistics facilities in Shanghai for $112 million.

LaSalle, a unit of Chicago-based real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle Group (JLL.N), is buying the properties for its LaSalle Asia Opportunity Fund III, the company said in a statement.

China's logistics market, worth $8.3 trillion in 2006, is growing 10 to 15 percent a year, the company said, fuelled by booming trade, manufacturing and retailing activity.

LaSalle Investment said last August that it planned to spend $15 billion to buy and develop property in Asia over the next three to five years, focusing on China, Japan and South Korea.

China's fast-growing industrial property market has also attracted developers such as AMB Property Corp AMB.N and ProLogis (PLD.N). (Reporting by Samuel Shen; Editing by Edmund Klamann)