Gaw Capital Partners, the Hong Kong-based private equity real estate firm, has raised more than half of the targeted amount for its latest fund.
It has hit first close at $700 million for Gaw Capital Real Estate Fund V, PERE reported. Institutional investors, including sovereign wealth and pension funds, participated.
While none of the capital has been invested yet, there is a pipeline of deals that would account for about a third of the capital raised so far, the report said.
Gaw typically goes for large co-investments with its larger investors, and that strategy is in place for Fund V as well. That would allow Gaw to invest far more than it raises. For instance, the firm raised more than $1 billion for its fourth fund, but deployed close to $2 billion ultimately, including co-investments and side-car funds.
Fund V might be able to deploy as much as $2.6 billion through co-investments. The targeted final close is $1.3 billion by the summer. The original target was $1.5 billion, but it was lowered to increase the potential for co-investment.
About 70 per cent of the fund might be deployed in China, higher than its previous plan to deploy half of the new fund in the region.
Some of Gaw Capital’s biggest deals have been in China. About 80 per cent of Fund IV was deployed there, with 20 per cent going towards investments in Vietnam, Korea and Japan.
Gaw is one of the largest real estate investors in Asia, with over $10 billion worth of assets under management, along with PAG and Alpha Investment Partners. Other players with similar investment sizes include Asian units of global managers like BlackRock, and LaSalle Investment Management.
The firm is also raising a side-fund, which will focus on hospitality and will invest alongside Fund V. This fund might have a corpus of $250 million, and will target hotels in the region.
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