CapitaLand has launched its first Vietnamese real estate fund.

The Singapore-headquartered company said it had closed the CapitaLand Vietnam Commercial Fund I at US$300m (€254m).

CapitaLand will hold a 40% stake in the fund and the remaining interests will be held by major institutional investors.

Lim Ming Yan, president and group CEO of CapitaLand, said: “Scaling up in the real estate sector requires strong financial capacity and flexibility.

“By proactively working with reputable capital partners to build scale, we can be nimble and react fast to seize growth opportunities.

“We see increasing investor interest in Southeast Asia, in particular Vietnam.”

He added: “CapitaLand is positive about the growth trajectory of Vietnam and foresee that this trend will continue for at least the next 10 years.

”Besides the growing demand for residential properties with urbanisation, we also see strong potential upside in the commercial real estate sector given the mismatch between demand and supply of quality office space.

“Having firmly established CapitaLand in key gateway cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, we are able to leverage our developer-owner-operator capabilities, strong fund management expertise and harness synergies across asset classes to deliver better risk-adjusted returns for investors.”

Lim Ming Yan said the new fund brought CapitaLand a “step closer” to its target to manage SGD10bn (€6.23bn) of assets by 2020.

Last year it raised US$1.5bn for its largest fund, Raffles City China Investment Partners III, which includes Canada Pension Plan Investment Board among its investors.