Tishman Speyer Signs $1.4B Deal with Chinese Online Wealth Manager Creditease

American real estate developer Tishman Speyer signed a funding agreement with the wealth management arm of China’s fintech heavyweight CreditEase this week which could provide the US company with as much as $1.4 billion in funding from Chinese consumers.

The deal between the US real estate giant and one of China’s largest providers of online money management apps comes as more Chinese investors look for opportunities to gain access to real estate fund investments both domestically and in the US.

The global strategic partnership agreement between the US property developer and investor and the Chinese fund manager aims for a RMB 10 billion ($1.4 billion) joint investment target over the next three years, and extends a similar deal signed between the two groups in 2015, according to a statement from CreditEase Wealth Management. New York-based Tishman Speyer, which has more than 17 million square feet of projects in China, has previously cooperated with Chinese asset managers to fund a $500 million Boston project.

Tishman Builds Ties With Mainland Fund Manager

“CreditEase Wealth Management and Tishman Speyer share a common value — we’re both dedicated to serve clients. We look forward to further strengthening our relationship as we seek more joint investment opportunities in China and in best-performing markets elsewhere,” Tishman Speyer president and CEO commented in a statement.

Best known as a developer, Tishman Speyer also has a successful real estate investment arm, which has raised $32.3 billion of fund and co-investment capital for investment in real estate across the United States, Europe, Brazil and Asia.

Creditease Wealth Management is the consumer wealth management wing of one of China’s more innovative financial management providers, with the Beijing-based company controlling NYSE-listed peer-to-peer lender Yirendai, online ecommerce lender ShangTongDai and mobile app Zhiwang Wealth Management. According to the company’s website, Creditease offers investment opportunities in fixed income, private equity, capital market, hedge funds, real estate and insurance, as well as investment immigration and international education.

In 2015 Tishman Speyer struck an investment deal with the asset management divisions of China Life and Ping An that brought in $167 million each from the two Chinese insurance giants for a $500 million  mixed-use project on Boston’s Pier 4. In addition to its Boston deal, the American developer also teamed up with China Vanke back in 2013 for a residential project in San Francisco.

Tishman Speyer is No Stranger to China

Tishman Speyer, with assets that include the likes of the Rockefeller Center and Chrysler Center in New York also has several mainland China developments, including The Springs project in Shanghai’s Yangpu district, and Crystal Plaza in the city’s Qiantan area.

Last year the real estate developer announced that it had secured its first project in Shenzhen, through a RMB 9 billion ($1.35 billion at the time) joint venture with mainland high tech giant Lenovo. Said to become a 204,400-square-metre office and retail development in Shenzhen’s central business district, the building will serve as headquarters to Lenovo who will occupy 40 percent of the office’s 130,000 square meters of office space.

The developer also has two projects in the Chinese city of Chengdu, the Atrium and Highland Park, and is working on The Summit in Suzhou, a 1.23 million square foot mixed-use project.

CreditEase Touts Global Ambitions

While Tishman Speyer looks to up its square footage in the Middle Kingdom, CreditEase was keen to advertise their global ambitions in the agreement’s announcement.

“We will soon open a wealth management business in the US to serve the needs of overseas Chinese as well,” said Creditease CEO Tang Ning, who added that his firm could become as globalised as Tishman Speyer over the next three to five years.

CreditEase Wealth Management invested a total of $30 million late last month in New York-based a small business lender OnDeck and San Francisco-based LendingHome, which provides bridge loans to real estate investors.