Leading Japanese financial group Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and its Singapore partner, Aravest Private Funds, have secured commitments of $165m (€143m) to be deployed within their APAC Real Estate Credit strategy.
The strategy will target private real estate credit opportunities across the APAC region, focusing on credit transactions secured by high-quality real assets. Investments will span a range of credit solutions tailored to the lifecycle of the underlying assets, including construction, bridge, value-add and stabilised stages, the company said in a statement.
SMBC said the commitments represented a significant milestone in the evolution of private credit in APAC, underpinned by the strengths and global scale of SMBC Group.
The group is the sponsor of the strategy, which is co-managed by its Singapore-based subsidiary, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management (SMDAM), and Aravest, manager of a diversified $9.9bn portfolio of investments in office, hospitality & living, logistics, retail and sustainable infrastructure across Asia-Pacific.
The strategy, the first in a series of private credit strategies to be developed by the SMBC Group under its SMBC Private Markets platform, was initially launched and seeded with $120m in December.
The venture is designed to establish a scalable real estate credit investment platform and to deliver a differentiated investment solution that addresses the growing demand for flexible and risk-managed capital in APAC’s real estate sector, according to SMBC.
The new platform is positioned as SMBC’s main asset management tool. It added that SMDAM, partnering with Aravest, had expanded its institutional reach in APAC to offer private market investments to global clients.
SMBC said the initiative would also support the Japanese government’s objective of positioning Japan as a leading global asset management centre.
