Jonathan Brasse
Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing is close to agreeing the sale of The Exchange office building in Shanghai to Chinese developer SOHO China. The firm, which has invested in the city since 2003, hopes to conclude a sale by the end of the year.
New York based-Westbrook Partners is seeking to sell Shell-Mex House, a large office building in London, two years after paying £494 million ($831 million; €582 million) for the property.
London-based Hansteen Holdings has raised £90m in equity for a UK-focused industrial fund. Morgan Jones, the firm’s chief executive officer, said the vehicle was targeting “high income generation” assets and would aim to provide its investors with a return of between 12-15 percent.
AiM-listed Speymill Macau Property Company this week replaced five board members following an EGM called by one of its major shareholders. Shares in the firm rose by 6.5% on the news.
While still posting negative returns, the latest quarterly update by the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) and The Townsend Group shows a slight pick-up in returns for opportunity and value-added real estate funds managed by US firms in the first quarter of 2009.
Mark Neporent and two former directors at Tokyo-based Kokusai Kogyo, a Cerberus joint venture, are alleged to have ‘violated their fiduciary duties’. The court action being taken by Kokusai Kogyo Holdings, which co-owns the transportation and property company, has reportedly been characterised by Cerberus as a means to pressure the private equity firm into selling them its stake.
Sarasin & Partners, the London-based investment management firm, part of Switzerland’s Bank Sarasin, is to launch an open-ended fund aimed at investing in the shares of sustainable energy-minded property companies
Even though investments into Asian, non-listed real estate funds have dipped markedly in the short-term, allocations to the sector will increase over the next three to five years.
The $200bn Chinese sovereign wealth fund is poised to buy a 40% stake in Chinese private equity and real estate firm, CITIC Capital, in its first domestic investment in a fund management platform. The Beijing-based fund purchased a stake in The Blackstone Group last year.
Former Fannie Mae chief executive officer Daniel Mudd will lead the New York-based private equity, real estate and hedge fund manager. It is part of a main board reshuffle aimed at enabling senior executives to focus on the group’s portfolio.
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