Allianz today announced that it has partnered with The National Pension Service of Korea (NPS) to establish a USD 2.3 billion investment platform to build a diversified core portfolio of high-quality properties in the Asia Pacific region.
The platform will be in the form of a new Singapore domiciled, closed-end fund called Allianz Real Estate Asia-Pacific Core I (AREAP Core I) which will boast an investment capacity of over USD 4.6 billion. NPS and Allianz group companies will be 50:50 investors whereas Allianz Real Estate will serve as the Investment Manager and General Partner of the venture.
“This is a significant step forward in our ambition of bringing like-minded third-party investors to invest alongside Allianz. We view this as the beginning of a scalable partnership between NPS and Allianz, two highly respected long-term institutional real estate investors. We are incredibly proud of Rushabh Desai and our Asia-Pacific team for successfully raising our first third-party equity fund,” said François Trausch, CEO Allianz Real Estate.
Mr. Hyo-Joon Ahn, CIO of NPS, said: “This partnership represents an excellent opportunity to expand our exposure to quality assets in the Asia Pacific region through a co-investment with a like-minded institutional investor like Allianz. The combined global experience and local expertise of the two institutions will provide prioritized access to attractive investment opportunities.”
The AREAP Core I strategy is to align with secular macro trends and take advantage of individual country and sector cycles to build a diversified portfolio of income-producing assets. The venture will focus on Japan, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China, seeking core investment opportunities across office, logistics, multi-family and student housing sectors.
“Asia-Pacific continues to offer outsized growth prospects with individual markets operating at varied pace, offering an opportunity to build a diversified portfolio within the region. AREAP Core I will have the scale and reach to provide a high level of deal execution certainty for prime/core transactions,” said Rushabh Desai, CEO Allianz Real Estate Asia Pacific. “We are very excited about this strategic partnership with NPS. This new chapter in our growth story acts as a strong validation of our team’s capabilities in the region.”
Over the past two years, Allianz Real Estate has significantly strengthened its business across the Asia Pacific region. The firm’s AUM in the region amounted to USD 6.2 billion (EUR 5.5 billion) as at the end of 2019, up from USD 3.4 billion (EUR 3 billion) at the end of 2018.
The 83% increase was the result of a number of successful strategic investments and diversification throughout the region during the past year. Alongside this, the company invested in the necessary infrastructure, opening up offices in Shanghai and Tokyo and hiring a range of industry experts to appropriately capture the long-term secular growth opportunities the region offers, positioning it well to manage the new venture with NPS. – BusinessNewsAsia.com