Deals

Wyoming backs SC Capital core-plus fund – Exclusive

The Singapore-based private equity real estate firm has raised $150 million for its core-plus fund that has the Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board as its biggest investor so far.  

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SC Capital Partners, the Singapore-based private equity real estate firm, has raised around $150 million in equity for its maiden core-plus vehicle in Asia. PERE understands that the firm has been able to raise the capital via two closes and from three institutional investors.

The Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) is so far one of the biggest investors in the SC Core Fund having agreed to commit $100 million. This investment marks the state fund’s foray into the Asian real estate market.

According to minutes of a board meeting posted on the website of SLIB – the state agency tasked with managing the state of Wyoming’s land funds – the investor committed $30 to $50 million in the fund on April 7. The remainder is to be invested before January 2017. The Chicago-based investment advisor RVK is responsible for vetting the investments of the state fund.

SC Capital Partners declined to comment on the fundraising. However PERE has further learnt from sources that the City of Phoenix Employees Retirement System (COPERS) is also an investor in the vehicle.

The Suchad Chiaranussati-led firm brought to market its first low risk/return vehicle in early 2015. The fund will be open-ended in nature with an initial fundraising target of around $400 million. Thereafter the fund would be open to subscribers for additional capital raising only after the three-year investment lock-in period has ended or 95 percent of the fund’s equity has been deployed.

The firm is also understood to be in the middle of closing the first investment from the fund’s corpus. It has agreed to acquire a student accommodation property in Sydney for around A$56 million (€38 million; $43 million).

As per the fund’s investment blueprint, Tokyo, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea are among the target markets for deployment with expected IRRs between 8 percent and 10 percent.

SC Capital Partners has raised four opportunistic real estate funds in the region. For the latest in the series – Real Estate Asia Capital Partners (RECAP) IV – it hauled $850 million in equity in late 2014, making it the largest fund to have been raised by the firm. The fund has already made around 13 investments.