Thailand Business Directory

Among Asian cities, Shanghai, the commercial and financial centre of China, is on track to become part of the “Big Seven” group of Established World Cities before the end of the decade.

That’s according to JLL’s Director for Global Research, Jeremy Kelly, who says that Shanghai’s fast-track momentum is supported by massive infrastructure investment, increasing global connectivity, improving transparency and a shift into high-value activities.

Shanghai’s rise up the real estate investment ranking has also been spectacular.

“Real estate transaction volumes have increased more than ten-fold over the past decade, testimony to a city that is fast-tracking to maturity,” says Kelly, explaining that direct commercial real estate investment volumes in the city grew from US$1.4 billion in 2006 to US$15 billion by 2016. The city’s current real estate investment intensity is due to the very high volumes of domestic capital chasing assets, he explains.

Betwee…

Private equity real estate debt funds in Asia Pacific are aiming to achieve a record volume of capital raised in 2017, with more funds actively in the market than any other year on record.

Funds whose primary strategy is debt investment are aiming to raise over US$2.5 billion in 2017, across 14 separate managers – more than double the target for 2016 vintage funds. In addition to this, there are a further 11 funds in the market targeting nearly US$10 billion that have debt strategies listed as a potential investment alongside other equity-based strategies.

Figure 1: PERE debt capital raising 2010-2017

Source: Preqin, JLL

Much of the focus from these primary debt funds is on India and Australia, with funds targeting those markets accounting for 86 per cent of capital raised or targeted between 2015-2017 (YTD). Most fund managers are domestically-based and are raising capital in local currency, however some of the larger India funds raise in USD. Read more

Thailand’s Ticon Industrial Connection Plc (TICON) plans to convert three of its property funds into the country’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT) with total combined asset of 32 billion baht ($964 million).

The three property funds are Ticon Property Fund, Ticon Park Logistics Fund and Ticon Industrial Growth Fund. The merger comes amidst  the Securities and Exchange Commission regulation that disallows property funds from raising further capital in a move seen to promote REITS.

TICON unveiled plans to convert three property funds – TFUND, TLOGIS, TGROWTH into TREIT by fixing a swap ratio at rate of 1 investment units of funds to 0.9874 / 1.0129 / 0.8673 trust units of TREIT, accompanied by a cash of 1.6977 / 1.7415 / 1.4911 baht per unit respectively. Therefore, the funds/trust unitholders’ meeting will be held during 18-19 October.

The group is confident that the move will surely bolster unitholders’ benefi…