SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) – CapitaLand on Thursday (June 24) announced its registration as a private equity (PE) fund manager with the Asset Management Association of China (Amac).
In a bourse filing before markets opened, the property giant said it was “one of a select few” wholly foreign-owned enterprises to do so.
Its new PE fund manager status will not only allow the group to carry out RMB-denominated capital raising, but also provide fund management services for prospective RMB funds in China. This enhances the capability of the group’s investment management platform to forge more capital partnerships with China’s domestic institutional investors, CapitaLand said.
The group aims to launch its first RMB-denominated fund product the fourth quarter of this year. It expects this upcoming fund to capture investment opportunities in new economy assets such as business parks, logistics and data centres.
Target institutional investor types include domestic insurance companies, bank-backed investment platforms, non-bank financial institutions and government investment vehicles.
CapitaLand said its new PE fund manager status will facilitate access to the “abundant liquidity” in China’s financial markets to grow its funds under management and fee-related earnings.
Highlighting China as the group’s largest core market, group chief executive Lee Chee Koon called the PE fund manager’s registration in China a “timely development”. He believes this will also provide a boost to the group’s transition towards an asset-light and capital-efficient business model.
“As China develops into one of the world’s largest asset management markets in the next few years, we see tremendous potential to tap the market liquidity for scaling our investment management platform,” he said.
Said Mr Puah Tze Shyang, chief executive of investment and portfolio management at CapitaLand China: “With the successful registration as PE fund manager with Amac, we will now be able to offer our fund management services to new and more investors through onshore fund raising. This will help to further diversify our domestic investor base in China and complement our existing offshore capital platforms such as CapitaLand China Trust and portfolio of private funds.”
Shares of CapitaLand ended Wednesday five cents, or 1.4 per cent, higher at $3.74.