LaSalle Investment Management’s Asia-Pacific opportunistic real estate fund has exceeded its fundraising target by raising $1.15bn (€932.2m).
The capital raised for LaSalle Asia Opportunity V (LAO V), which was launched in 2016, will provide buying power for around $3.3bn worth of assets.
In August last year, LaSalle said it raised $335m for LAO V and increased its target size from $750m to $1bn.
LaSalle said the total equity was raised from 20 external institutional investors from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US.
Of the capital committed, LaSalle said 85% will be allocated to the fifth fund in LaSalle’s series of closed-end, pan-Asia opportunistic and 15% targetted for co-investments.
Mark Gabbay, chief executive officer and chief investment officer – Asia Pacific, said: “The robust global investor demand for LaSalle’s opportunistic fund product in the region highlights Asia-Pacific’s emergence as one of the most attractive destinations for real estate investors globally.”
Gabbay said there is rising demand for core assets.
Gabbay told IPE Real Assets that the fourth fund is now selling assets and returning capital to investors.
He said that, broadly, the fifth fund follows the same strategy as the previous fund which invested in markets in Asia-Pacific and also has exposure to the Chinese and Korean logistics sectors.
“The biggest change is the weighting to Australia,” said Gabbay.
“The Australian market currently offers fewer value-add opportunities to generate the returns expected by investors.”
Gabbay said capital allocation to Australia will likely cut back from 35% in the previous fund, with capital re-directed to other key markets such as Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Marc Montanus, fund manager for the LaSalle Asia Opportunity Series, said LAO V has, so far, invested approximately 37% of committed capital.
