Actis Reaches $251M in Funding for Second Asia Real Estate Vehicle

London-based fund manager Actis has raised $251 million so far for its second Asia real estate vehicle, pulling in less than half of its $850 million target nearly two years since the fund’s debut according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

Actis, a private equity firm focused on emerging markets, has secured a quarter of a billion from 12 investors so far for its Asia Real Estate Fund 2, which was first officially launched in August 2019.

The latest capital raised leaves Actis $599 million away from its $850-million investment target for this latest edition of the opportunistic strategy, which targets investments in real estate assets across Asia Pacific, including South Korea, China, Vietnam and India.

US-based real estate advisory firm Hodes Weill Securities, LLC, which focuses on real estate investments, provided advisory services for the deal. Actis declined when asked to comment.

Building Asia Real Estate Portfolio

In its first year after formally establishing the fund, Actis said in November 2020 that it secured $200 million from four unnamed investors with that milestone having been established after the first version of the strategy was set up to acquire Standard Chartered’s real estate fund management business in 2018.

Among its major real estate investments in Asia, Actis, which has public pension funds, development financial institutions, private pension plans and sovereign wealth funds as its biggest investors, were the 85,602 square metre SkyBox logistics complex in Incheon, South Korea, which it developed and later sold to an institutional investor in 2019 after achieving 90 percent occupancy within 18 months.

Another South Korean win was the Young City office project, a 99,000 square metre, twin-tower complex which Actis developed and then sold to a real estate investment trust sponsored by SK D&D last year.

In India, the UK-based private equity firm has completely exited the country’s office market after selling in September its stake in new generation office property IT4 in Mumbai to its partner Tata Realty and Infrastructure.

Capital Flows

Actis fund raising milestone was announced as a number of private equity firms have secured fresh capital for Asian real estate strategies, including CBRE Investment Management announcing in 5 October that it had raised $1.74 billion for its Asia Value Partners VI fund and Blackstone saying late last month that it had secure $4 billion  for its Real Estate Partners Asia III vehicle.

Beyond its real estate strategies, Actis also manages the emerging markets-focused Actis Energy 5 fund, which just reached its final closing on $6 billion in fresh capital last month, as well as its $1.23-billion Long Life Infrastructure Fund that will be invested in energy infrastructures across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

The London-based firm, which now has $15 billion in funds under management, has its roots in the 2004 restructuring of UK government-backed CDC Capital Partners, with the firm having raised a combined $24 billion in capital since that time.