‘Depressed moments’: Hong Kong fund seeks £1 billion from Asian investors to acquire UK pub, hotel, housing assets
- Fund seeks outside investors from Hong Kong, mainland China and Southeast Asia to bet on UK commercial assets at ‘depressed moments’ in industry
- Venture counts the heir of SaSa cosmetics retail chain among its financial backers
The fund, whose backers include the heir of the Sasa cosmetics retail chain in the city, deems it opportune to pick up pubs, hotels and student housing amid “depressed moments” which could deliver an additional 15 to 20 per cent upside in an industry upturn.
“We are already negotiating with a few smaller landlords of pubs and hotels, pubs that have residential units, or a hotel with a master lease and some retail component,” co-founder Timothy Li said. The fund aims to exit from its investments and return the money to investors within six years, he added.
The UK retail property segment had been on a decline even before the pandemic in 2020, according to property consultancy Carter Jonas on May 25. Average rental values dipped 17.4 per cent below their 2018 peak, while interest-rate hikes have also derailed home prices over the past two months, official data showed.
The market pullback has attracted some of Hong Kong’s biggest property investors. CK Asset Holdings, tycoon Li Ka-shing’s flagship entity, last month made a takeover offer of Civitas Social Housing, a UK-listed investment trust with social-care housing and healthcare facilities.
Chinese developer Chinachem Group last September spent £158.5 million to acquire the Kaleidoscope, an office building in London whose tenants include ByteDance, the Chinese operator of short-video app TikTok.
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Panda Residential’s backers include QF Capital, which was co-founded and led by Patrick Kwok Ho-chuen. Kwok is the heir of SaSa International, a listed retailer with HK$4.5 billion of market capitalisation.
