This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
LASALLE Investment Management has raised over US$2.2 billion of equity for a real estate fund looking for “mispriced” assets it can reposition and redevelop in Australia and throughout the Asia Pacific.
The equity raising for the LaSalle Asia Opportunity VI (LAO VI) fund exceeded initial targets of US$1.5 billion. Global institutional investors committed the capital, which will provide buying power for over US$7 billion worth of assets.
LAO VI is the sixth in LaSalle’s closed-ended, opportunistic fund series focusing on Asia Pacific.
“In keeping with its predecessor funds, LAO VI seeks to take advantage of mispriced assets with opportunities to add value through repositioning and redevelopment in Asia Pacific’s key markets including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Singapore, having invested approximately 25% of committed capital so far in a diversified portfolio,” LaSalle Investment Management said.
The Asia Opportunity Fund series has invested in over US$13 billion worth of assets to date, with average asset returns generated by the series exceeding the target of 18% net IRR over the past 10 years.
“We are focused on bolstering our platform in this strategy across all regions where we operate, to meet the continued investor demand for enhanced alpha throughout market cycles,” said Mark Gabbay, LaSalle’s global CEO.
The fund’s investment strategy is led by Kunihiko (Nick) Okumura and Claire Tang in their expanded roles as co-chief investment officers of LaSalle Asia Pacific, which they took on in last year after former Asia Pacific CEO and CIO Mark Gabbay took on the role as LaSalle’s Global CEO.
Marc Montanus, fund manager for the LaSalle Asia Opportunity Fund Series the LaSalle has exceeded its initial target for the fund against the economic headwinds brought by the pandemic over the past two years.
“This is testament to our investors’ confidence in LaSalle’s excellent track record in deploying capital and generating strong investment performance for our clients.”
