Lendlease has sold its life sciences interest in Asia to a newly established 50-50 joint venture with Warburg Pincus in a S$129m (€88m) deal.
The partners intend to use the joint venture as the launch pad for a specialist real estate platform capitalising on the growing life sciences sector in Asia Pacific.
Lendlease said the transaction provided the group an opportunity to realise the value it had created, and it would see it transfer its current life sciences construction and development capabilities in Asia to the new entity.
The deal is expected to return A$66m in net proceeds to Lendlease.
Tony Lombardo, Lendlease’s global CEO, said: “With the combination of Lendlease’s 30 years track record in the Asia Pacific supporting the world’s largest pharmaceutical and life sciences companies and Warburg Pincus’ experience and track record in investing and scaling platforms, the joint venture is well-positioned to become the leading integrated life sciences real estate business in the region.”
He said the venture offered “compelling” investment opportunities to investors. “This is another example of how we are realising value from our existing operations, while further simplifying Lendlease to create a more focussed company for securityholders.”
Lendlease’s life sciences business in Asia is particularly active in Singapore and China, where it has delivered laboratories, research centres and manufacturing facilities for the likes of Pfizer and Roche.
Over more than two decades, that business has completed more than 100 projects for around 30 clients, including the biotech facilities at Singapore’s new 82-hectares Tuas Biomedical Park in Singapore’s West, which is now more than 90% complete.
The Sydney-based group is under activist shareholders pressure to streamline its business and retreat from offshore operations.
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