Washington DC-based The Carlyle Group has closed its Asia Real Estate Partners II fund on $485 million after setting out to raise $1 billion back in 2008. The company, which ranked eighth in the PERE 30 rankings of the 30 largest private equity real estate firms, has continued to be active in the private equity real estate space over the past year.
In its 2009 annual report, Carlyle said it spent much of the past year trying to boost its liquidity through public market offerings, including a $445 million initial public offering for Kaisa Group Holdings, a Chinese real estate developer listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. All together, Carlyle said it invested $524 million in 23 real estate transactions during 2009.
Tapping dislocated markets through purchases of residential mortgage-backed securities, Carlyle snapped up more than $500 million of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2008 and 2009, the firm said. And in April, the firm clinched what it said was the largest real estate leasing deal in New York history, renting the retail condominium space at 666 Fifth Avenue to Japanese clothing company Uniqlo for more than $300 million for a 15-year lease.
Last July, Carlyle teamed up and the National Pension Service of South Korea to buy the KDX Toyosu Grandsquare office in Japan for roughly $366 million.
The firm also closed various private equity and buyout funds, including Riverstone/Carlyle Global Energy and Power Fund IV at $6 billion, Carlyle Asia Partners III buyout fund at $2.5 billion and Carlyle Global Financial Services Partners at $1.1 billion.
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