KKR Closes 1st Asian Fund at $1.7B

Marina Bay, Singapore. Image by Rahul Sukh via Pixabay.com

KKR has closed KKR Asia Real Estate Partners at $1.7 billion. The opportunistic real estate investment fund is the firm’s first in the Asia Pacific and will focus on a diverse range of properties in such sectors as commercial, industrial and residential, as well as opportunistically evaluate assets in emerging alternative sectors.

The inaugural fund received backing from a diverse group of investors, from public and corporate pensions, insurance companies, private banking platforms, sovereign wealth funds to endowments, family offices and individual investors. Additionally, the fund is one of the biggest inaugural pan-regional real estate funds to have been raised in the Asia Pacific.

Rapid growth region

According to Ming Lu, head of KKR Asia Pacific, the rapid real estate growth in the region requires sophisticated investment and innovative operational solutions to keep up with the need for modernized assets and developments. John Pattar, head of Asia Pacific Real Estate at KKR, considers that the increase in domestic consumption, productivity and urbanization, combined with the growth of commerce, platform-based businesses, as well as the transformation of the traditional office landscape will reshape the real estate sector in the region.

KKR has deployed more than $1.5 billion of equity across some 20 real estate deals in the Asia Pacific since 2011. The company invested in several asset types, including mixed-use, commercial, industrial, hotel, office and retail, but also provided debt financing to real estate developers and companies. One example from the beginning of last March is the acquisition of Namsan Square, a roughly 807,000-square-foot office tower in Seoul.