Invesco secures first $100m for Asia opp fund

Invesco Real Estate has officially launched a $500 million opportunistic real estate fund in Asia, its first vehicle for high returning investments in the region after the 2011 acquisition of American International Group (AIG).

According to an SEC filing made earlier this week, Invesco Real Estate has raised $75 million via Invesco Asia Real Estate Fund III. However, PERE has confirmed from sources that the firm has in fact so far secured $100 million in hard commitments from investors.

No official first closing is understood to have been reached so far, and no capital has been deployed yet either.

Invesco Asia Real Estate Fund III is a blind pool, closed-ended commingled opportunity fund.

The capital raised is expected to be invested in markets across Asia including Japan, Australia, Seoul and China. According to an earlier PERE report, IRRs of between 15 percent and 18 percent are expected from investments.

The fund launch comes a few months after the firm appointed Calvin Chou as head of its opportunistic funds business in Asia. The former head of China at Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) assumed his role in June in what was a newly-created position at Invesco to expand its higher yielding investment activities in the region.

Graeme Torre, managing director and head of portfolio management for Asia-Pacific, and Cheng-Soon Lau, managing director and director of Asia Direct Real Estate, had been leading the overall real estate investing strategy in Asia. Torre is now believed to be focusing solely on the firm’s core strategy while Chou takes ownership of the opportunistic business.

Invesco currently operates a pan-Asian open-ended core real estate fund, via which it has raised more than $500 million so far. The firm has plans to raise $1 billion in total over the next five years.

Around the same time as the core fund was brought to market in early 2013, the firm also plotted the launch of Invesco Asia Real Estate Partners III. However, it is believed that a decision was soon made to put the fund launch on hold, and instead focus on the core fund.

Invesco also manages a legacy opportunity fund acquired as part of its takeover of AIG’s Asian real estate business in 2011. AIG Asia Real Estate Partners II, which was closed on $740 million in 2008, is believed to be near to closing with most of its assets sold.