Chinese private conglomerate Fosun Property has partnered with asset manager Resolution Property to launch a new investment platform focused on value-add opportunities across Europe.
Chinese private conglomerate Fosun Property has partnered with asset manager Resolution Property to launch a new investment platform focused on value-add opportunities across Europe.
The new unit, Resolution Property Investment Management (RPIM), will act as Fosun’s exclusive investment manager for this strategy. It will be majority-owned by Fosun Property, with the balance owned by Resolution Property’s partners.
RPIM is Fosun's first property investment platform in Europe and will also provide a launchpad for Resolution Property’s future real estate investment business, including the launch of Resolution Real Estate Fund V later this year. Fund V will also target third-party investors.
It is the second asset management platform Fosun Property has invested in since the Japanese Idera acquisition in May 2014.
With Fosun’s backing, RPIM will be targeting investments in large office and retail assets and portfolios. It will also be actively looking to export Resolution Property’s UK model of office development for the creative and digital sector to new European cities, the companies said.
Xu Xiaoliang, vice-president of Fosun Group and president of Fosun Property, said: 'In the future, Resolution Property will be the exclusive platform for value-add investment in Europe for Fosun Property, utilizing Fosun’s insurance capital and building up global investment capability.'
Robert Laurence, CEO of Resolution Property, added: 'This is a major milestone in the development of Resolution Property’s business. Our venture with Fosun provides us with substantial investment capability for future funds and allows us to build on decades of experience in adding value to European property assets through creative management.'
Portuguese insurer
Guo Guangchang’s Fosun is not a newcomer to the European market: in October 2013, Fosun Property made its European debut with the acquisition of the Lloyds Chambers in the City of London; and in early 2014 when Fosun took over Fidelidade, the largest insurance company in Portugal, Fosun Property helped manage the €700 mln real estate assets under Fidelidade.
The Shanghai-based company has been linked with a dozen potential European acquisitions since unveiling plans in 2013 to buy chunks of real estate in the world’s major cities.
Over the past months, the company has joined the bidding for Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, one of Europe’s most iconic ensemble of buildings, and broker C&W (eventually taken over by peer DTZ).
These moves are believed to be part of Fosun's newly launched continental European investment strategy. According to well-informed market sources, the group recently recruited Antoine Castro as head of real estate Europe to sound out investment opportunities across the Continent.
PropertyEU understands that the European acquisitions will likely be made through the group’s Portuguese insurance arm, Fidelidade, which was bought in late 2014 in the biggest acquisition involving Chinese and European financial institutions since 2008.
Greece and Italy
In the two direct European acquisitions inked so far, Fosun has shown a taste for assets offering (re)-development potential in crisis-hit countries such as Italy and Greece. In Italy, the group bought Unicredit's former headquarters at Milan’s central Piazza Cordusio for €345 mln. The complex, which is only 30% occupied, dates back to the early 1900s and provides around 50,000 m2 of office space in central Milan.
In Greece, the Chinese investor is believed to have teamed up with Greek partner Lamda Development and real estate developer Al Maabar from Abu Dhabi to invest €915 mln in a 99-year lease on a 620-hectare site at Athens’ former Hellenikon airport.
According to local press reports, the three partners are planning a €6.8 bn integrated resort on the site, including luxury residences, two hotels, a casino, shopping mall, exhibition centre and concert facilities. The site already includes a 337-berth marina and has 3.5 kilometres of waterfront.