Warburg Pincus-Backed Trax Closes $100M Round and More Asia Real Estate Headlines 

Retail proptech leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines today with news that a Singapore-headquartered provider of image recognition technology that tracks products on shelves has raised $100 million in a HOPU-led funding round.

In other news across the region, China’s second largest developer by sales has signed a deal to invest $7.3 billion in the capital of China’s central Qinghai province, while the investment arm of a state-owned Chinese development giant is planning a logistics property fund of up to $730 million.

Elsewhere, the Supreme Court in India says some of the country’s banks colluded with a developer in the misappropriation of loans, and the Trump administration doubles the minimum investment required for a golden visa.

Warbug Pincus-backed Trax Closes $100M Series D Investment

Warburg Pincus-backed Trax, a provider of image recognition technology for retail that counts Heineken and Nestle among its clients, said it has raised $100 million in its latest funding round, becoming Singapore’s second unicorn.

Chinese private-equity firm Hopu Investments led the financing for the nine-year-old firm, Trax said in a statement. Read more>>

CapitaLand Mall Trust Sees 3.9% Rise in Q2 DPU

Better numbers on revenue and net property income have helped CapitaLand Mall Trust (CMT) lift its second-quarter distribution per unit (DPU).

DPU was up 3.9 percent to 2.92 cents for the three months to 30 June, the trust manager said yesterday before the market opened. Read more>>

China Vanke to Pump RMB 50B into Qinghai

China Vanke, the country’s second largest property developer by sales, plans to invest about RMB 50 billion ($7.3 billion) in Xining, the capital of China’s central Qinghai province.

It is reported that the Shenzhen-based company and the local government in Xining have signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement. Vanke first invested in Xining in July 2018, placing a bid of RMB 2.4 billion ($348.8 million) for three plots of land covering 27.2 hectares (272,000 metres) in Nanchuan district. Read more>>

Sino-Ocean Plans Logistics Property Fund of up to RMB 5B

Sino-Ocean Capital, the investment arm of mainland developer Sino-Ocean Group, is planning a new fund to tap into growing ­demand for warehousing properties amid the continuing rise of ­e-commerce.

The company plans to launch a RMB 3 billion to RMB 5 billion ($440 million to $730 million) fund to acquire logistics properties, said Lin Chuan, managing director of Sino-Ocean Capital, who oversees its private equity business. Read more>>

India’s Supreme Court Slams Banks for Colluding with Amrapali Developers

India’s top court on Tuesday said several banks had colluded with Amrapali Developers, one of India’s largest real estate firms, in the misappropriation of loans meant for housing projects.

The Supreme Court criticised the lenders for failing to monitor the end use of loans to the company, one of several developers in India to hit financial trouble in recent years after a decade-long building boom. Read more>>

Trump Revamps Controversial Golden Visa Scheme

After years of wrangling, the Trump administration has agreed to revamp a controversial visa program for wealthy foreign investors that benefited developers such as President Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

A new final rule, to be published Wednesday, will nearly double the minimum amount of cash required to secure an EB-5 investor visa from $500,000 to $900,000 for projects in needy areas. Read more>>

Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.

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