Singapore’s CapitaLand Acquires Beijing Suning Life Plaza For S$553mil

CHINA – CapitaLand, a real estate player based in Singapore, has entered into a deal to purchase mixed-use commercial property Beijing Suning Life Plaza from heavily indebted company Suning Real Estate for S$553 million, reported Deal Street Asia on Monday afternoon (13 March, SGT).

With an area of 714,000 sq ft, Beijing Suning Life Plaza consists of office space and retail premises. The asset is being acquired via CapitaLand’s newly established S$291 million asset fund.

Notably, CapitaLand plans to invest to convert and upgrade the property’s retail component into Grade A office spaces which are expected to fetch a higher rent. The property repositioning is targeted to commence in Q1 2023.

The single-asset fund is among two entities established by CapitaLand Investment (CLI) in February 2023 in a bid to invest a total of S$1.1 billion in special situation opportunities in China.
CLI has a 20 percent interest in the S$1.1 billion CapitaLand China Opportunistic Partners (CCOP) Programme, which holds Beijing Suning Life Plaza.

“CCOP complements CLI’s recent drive to raise onshore domestic capital to pursue real estate opportunities across the risk spectrum in China,” stated CLI.

Since last June, CapitaLand Investment has rolled out three onshore yuan funds, raising nearly S$780 million in third-party capital and attracting 10 new Chinese investors into CLI’s network of capital partners.

With the addition of its recently announced fund called CapitaLand China Data Centre Partners (CDCP) and the latest transactions under CCOP, CLI has raised over S$2 billion in third-party capital to invest in seven quality properties in China.

In total, CapitaLand Investment has a total of 12 private investment vehicles in China that owns 31 real estate assets with funds under management (FUM) of S$21.3 billion as of 31 December 2022.