Mubadala commits $300m to CBC HIP’s China life science venture

Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth investor Mubadala Investment Company has committed $300 million to CBC Healthcare Infrastructure Platform’s China life science venture, PERE has learned.

With the latest commitment from Mubadala, CBC HIP – a partnership between Singapore-based healthcare-focused asset manager CBC Group and Dutch pension investor APG Asset Management – held a second close on $875 million for its first life science real assets venture, CLSRA Venture I, this month. PERE previously reported the final close was slated for the first quarter of this year.

Having said that, CBC HIP has not changed the $1.5 billion fundraising target and is currently in talks with several large institutional investors from Asia and the Middle East. The life science specialist now expects to complete fundraising for the venture in the first quarter of 2024.

Hans Kang, chief executive officer of CBC HIP, told PERE that he has seen an increase in interest from Middle Eastern investors to invest in China despite a drop in capital coming from North American investors.

“The Middle Eastern investors have a huge amount of capital that they need to deploy strategically in the long run and the size of the Chinese market can accommodate their investment needs. At the same time, they are seeing more compelling opportunities on the ground with the reduced competition from North American investors,” he said. He also pointed out that some European investors are still selectively looking at investment opportunities in the country despite a slowdown.

“We have great confidence in the growth potential of China’s life science real assets sector, which benefits from strong market fundamentals, demographic trends, and government support. We are excited to be joining CBC HIP and APG and look forward to helping to build China’s foremost portfolio of best-in-class life science real assets,” Matthias Neuling, head of Asia & DACH, real estate at Mubadala, said in a statement.

Anchored by a commitment from APG, CLSRA Venture I reached a first close of $500 million in November 2021. CBC HIP has deployed $450 million, or 90 percent of the capital secured in the first close, across four real estate projects in China. Today, the venture owns approximately 5.6 million square feet of life science real assets in the top three life science cities in China: Shanghai, Beijing and Suzhou.

As CBC HIP continues to see substantial deals in its pipeline, the participation of Mubadala is expected to help the venture to secure further opportunities.

Fu Wei, chief executive officer of CBC Group, said the “strong interest” he has seen from large institutional investors like Mubadala is a “clear market validation” of the firm’s strategy and opportunities in China.