Warburg-Backed Kailong Sells Floor in Hong Kong Building for HK$31M

Real estate fund manager KaiLong Group has made its first sale at a renovated office building in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan area, as the Warburg Pincus-backed fund manager continues its strata sales strategy in the city.

Kailong sold the 6th floor in the Yue Thai Commercial Building to an unnamed investor for HK$31.4 million ($4 million), the Hong Kong Economic Times reported this past week. The sale of the 1,530 square foot (142 square metre) asset was made at a rate equivalent to HK$20,500 per square foot.

Sheung Wan Tower Among Eight HK Assets

The sale came less than two years after Kailong acquired the 25 storey building at 128-129 Connaught Road Central with the company headed by Cheng Hei Ming now having put 13 floors in the building on the market following renovation. The fund manager is reported to have paid HK$380 million to purchase the Yue Thai Commercial building in 2017.

In an interview with Mingtiandi last year Kailong said it had purchased eight properties in Hong Kong from mid-2017 through June of 2018, making a total of HK$3.7 billion worth of acquisitions.

The company said at the time that it intended to sell the projects, which are in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai, Sheung Wan and Tsim Sha Tsui commercial areas, on a strata-title basis. Kailong spent around HK$1 billion acquiring three en bloc commercial buildings in Sheung Wan in 2017, according to a statement by the company at the time.

Greater China Strategy Underway

In addition to its Hong Kong strata sales activities, Kailong is also aiming for some bigger deals a new fund that spans Hong Kong and the mainland.

In March of this year the fund manager announced that it had reached a $500 million first closing on its latest US dollar value add fund, KaiLong Greater China Real Estate Fund II. The fund raising received a substantial boost late last year when Allianz said that it was committing $175 million to the pooled investment vehicle.