Real Estate
Citi Private Bank Pairs Up With Chinese Conglomerate For Two New Funds
Citi Private Bank and state-owned conglomerate
China Resources Group have launched two new real estate funds
that will focus on Chinese shopping malls, according
to Reuters.
A spokesperson from Citi confirmed the launch of the funds when
contacted by WealthBriefing Asia, adding that its
private banking arm is the exclusive distributor of a CR
Group-sponsored realty fund, but declined to give details on the
new funds' target sizes.
The report said they are called CR China Retail Real Estate
Income Fund 1 and CR China Retail Real Estate Development Fund 1,
citing unnamed sources.
"Secondary cities in China are experiencing a boom on the back of
rapid urbanisation. Where Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were
once the main beneficiaries of this migration, Tier II and Tier
III cities such as Ningbo, Tianjin and Qingdao are now capable of
offering similar opportunities. With an influx of people come
demands for commercial and retail real estate. The real estate
fund gives investors the chance to capitalise on that trend,"
said
Quek Kwang Meng, the head of real estate investments for Citi
Private Bank, in an emailed response to this publication.
The high net worth population in China surpassed that of
the UK in 2008 to become the fourth largest in the world,
according to the last Merrill Lynch/Capgemini World Wealth
Report. The research said that the China's population
of high net worth individuals is expected to triple the 2008
numbers by 2018, as smaller cities begin to expand and the volume
of wealth from the rural areas rises.
Citi serves over 500,000 affluent Citigold and more than 6,000
private banking clients in the Asia Pacific
region alone.
