Warburg Pincus-backed DNE has raised RMB3.5bn (€441m) from Chinese insurance companies for its second life-science park fund.

This is the second fund that DNE, one of the first and largest life-sciences infrastructure developer-operators in China, has launched to invest in life science real estate.

The latest fund, which targets high-quality life-sciences R&D parks in the key economic hub of Shanghai, has begun to allocate capital to a core industry cluster in Pudong.

Sun Dongping, chairman and CEO of DNE, said there was a scarcity of supply of life-sciences facilities in China, and the investors, mainly insurance companies, were attracted by the growth potential of China’s life-sciences industry.

“Domestic insurance investors have closely followed the national development strategies, and have been deeply engaged in new economy infrastructure investments in China in recent years,” said Sun.

DNE has nearly a decade of success in China’s life-sciences space. It currently operates and manages life-science parks over more than 700,000sqm in the Shanghai and Yangtze River Delta region.

The firm also has more than 1.5m sqm of secured pipeline projects nationwide.

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