[photopress:chinaproperty.jpg,full,alignright]US-based private equity fund Warburg Pincus plans to put $400 million more into the China property market over the next four years. This reflects its confidence in the sector’s long-term prospects but also, in another sense, ensures that it will happen.
Warburg Pincus has about US$10 billion under management and is one of the oldest and largest private equity funds in the world. It earlier said that it planned to invest half of its US$1.2 billion global property fund in Asia.
Warburg Pincus Asia LLC Managing Director Philip Mintz told China Daily the fund is interested in medium-sized players with a focus on medium- and upper-class residential projects. He said, ‘Greentown China is the type of developer we are looking for. The units the developer sells are priced at RMB7,500 ($937.5) per square meter, with an average size of 100 square meters.’
Greentown China is a Hong Kong-listed property firm headquartered in Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang Province. It has developed more than 2.0 million square meters of properties since 1995.
Warburg Pincus will not limit itself to China’s most crowded property markets. Philip Mintz said, ‘Second-tier cities such as Shenyang and Changsha will be at the top of our list.’
Warburg Pincus already holds shares in Chinese property companies Guangzhou R&F, Greentown China, Sunshine 100 and Olive City. It also recently acquired shares in Shenzhen-based budget hotel chain 7 Days Inn. Warburg Pincus invested US$20 million in the company, which has 10 hotels in Beijing, Shenzhen and Hubei Province’s capital of Wuhan.
Source: China Daily