November 28, 2017, Hong Kong – Real estate private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners today announced that the firm, through a fund under its management, and consortium partners, including Goldman Sachs, have won a bid to acquire a retail portfolio comprising 17 shopping centers in Hong Kong from Link Asset Management Limited at HK$ 23 billion and an average price of around HK$7,922 per sq. ft. excluding parking.

The portfolio is comprised of a number of strategically-located properties across Kowloon and the New Territories that sit in the heart of densely-populated communities and in close proximity to MTR stations. The GFA of the portfolio totals 2.2 million sq. ft. of prime retail space and comes with over 8,000 parking spaces that are connected to highly-convenient transport links. Their excellent accessibility and holistic shopping environments have made them attractive destinations for retailers and hubs of community life for residents.

The shopping centers included in the portfolio are: Cheung Hang Shopping Centre, Kai Yip Commercial Centre, Kam Tai Shopping Centre, Lei Cheng Uk Shopping Centre, On Ting Commercial Complex, Shek Lei Shopping Centre I & II, Tai Wo Hau Commercial Centre, Tsz Ching Shopping Centre, Yau Oi Commercial Centre and Yung Shing Shopping Centre, Kwai Fong Plaza, Kwai Shing East Shopping Centre, Lai Kok Shopping Centre, Lee On Shopping Centre, Retail and Car Park within Shun Tin Estate, Tsing Yi Commercial Complex and Lions Rise Mall.

Goodwin Gaw, Chairman and Managing Principal of Gaw Capital Partners, said, “We and our partners strongly believe in Hong Kong’s future, and believe these malls, which Link REIT has done an excellent job in upgrading and maintaining, will continue to serve important functions in the community. We hope to utilize our experience to evolve these malls into refreshed and renewed centers of local life. To be successful, we will need the support of the community, and we look forward to working with them to understand the gaps that could be filled and how we can support them to make their neighborhoods better homes.

Kenneth Gaw, President and Managing Principal of Gaw Capital Partners, commented, “We are delighted to have won the bid together with our consortium partners to acquire and manage these assets. Despite the rise in e-commerce, we believe retail facilities such as these continue to be highly important foundations of community life, and we recognize their strong potential to thrive in the years ahead. We look forward to applying our deep experience in repositioning commercial property to add significant strategic value to these shopping centers.”

Gaw Capital has over 12 years of experience investing in and/or turning around commercial properties in Greater China, including Hong Kong. The firm successfully transformed and repositioned properties such as 133 Wai Yip Street in Hong Kong, a former 12-storey industrial building turned creative office space; Pacific Century Place in Beijing, a 1.8 million sq. ft. renovated mixed-use commercial property with two office towers and two serviced apartment block on a retail podium; Ciro’s Plaza in Shanghai, a mixed-use property with a 39-storey office building and a 302,000 sq. ft. retail mall; Plaza 353 in Shanghai, a 430,000 sq. ft. renovated mall with historical heritage status; Popark Plaza in Guangzhou, a 994,000 sq. ft. retail mall connected to the Guangzhou East Rail Station, with high-speed trains to Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and access to two major subway lines; and Metropolitan Plaza in Guangzhou, a 956,000 sq. ft. mall above on two subway lines.

About Goldman Sachs Group
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of financial services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals. Founded in 1869, the firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world.

About Gaw Capital Partners
Gaw Capital Partners is a uniquely positioned private equity fund management company that focusing on real estate markets in greater China and other high barrier-to-entry markets globally.

Specializing in adding strategic value to under-utilized real estate through redesign and repositioning, Gaw Capital runs an integrated business model with own in-house asset management operating platforms in retail, hospitality, property development and logistics. The firm’s investments span the entire spectrum of real estate sectors, including residential development, offices, retail malls, hospitality and logistics warehouses.

The firm has raised five commingled funds targeting the Greater China and Asia Pacific region since its inception. In addition to managing opportunistic funds in Vietnam and the US along with a Pan-Asia hospitality fund, the firm also provides services for separate account direct investments globally.

Gaw Capital has raised equity of USD$ 8.6 billion since 2005 and commands assets of USD$ 13 billion under management as of Q2 2017.

RC Hiss offers complete solutions for all types of lifts. The company supplies and installs new lifts as well as performs service, maintenance and refurbishment of existing lifts. The company was founded in 1977 and has around 40 employees. It is based in Varberg and also has offices in Alingsås and Borås. RC Hiss turns over approximately 80 MSEK and has over the last five years had an operating margin of about six percent.

”RC Hiss is a very well-run company with a strong position on the west Sweden market. It has an experienced management with over 40 years in the lift market. The customer base is large and loyal with over 4 000 installed lifts. Pegroco will together with the management continue to strengthen the company’s offer and develop new attractive products and services. We will work for an expansion of the company both organically and by acquisition”, says Thomas Brue, CEO, Pegroco Invest.

”With Pegroco as part owner we can prepare ourselves for the next step in our development. We will now have the possibilities to expand geographically, with west Sweden as the top priority market. The ambition is to grow sales by offering an attractive complete solution”, says Kent Carlsson, CEO, RC Hiss.

The initial acquisition price for the shares amounts to a maximum of 34 MSEK. The sellers also have the right to an earn-out of maximum 6 MSEK during the next two years. The acquisition includes the company’s industrial property in central Varberg and the company’s net cash. Pegroco acquires 90.1 percent of the shares while Kent Carlsson with family remain as owners of 9.9 percent of the shares of the company. The Carlsson family has an option to in the future increase its ownership to over 20 percent.

For more information

See www.pegrocoinvest.com or contact Thomas Brue, CEO Pegroco Invest AB (Publ), tel: +46 70-270 2141, email: thomas@pegrocoinvest.com

Consensus Asset Management AB is Pegroco’s Certified Adviser on Nasdaq First North Stockholm.

We are thrilled to announce our latest investment in real-estate tech pioneer Adfenix. Together with Notion Capital, we are co-leading the $6 million Series A round. Starbright Invest and Goodfellows also participated in the round.

The financing will fuel continued innovation and acceleration of Adfenix’s cloud-based customer services offering to real-estate agencies across Europe, and entrance into the US market during 2018.

Founded on a vision that today’s real-estate market is highly inefficient and that customers should expect a significantly better experience when buying or selling a home, Adfenix today services 85+ real estate agents globally. Leaders including RE/MAX, Sotheby’s, Harcourts are using the Adfenix B2B cloud platform to automatically reach significantly more potential home buyers, increase viewings, maximise end price and ultimately empower their agents to shorten sales cycles and sell more homes with less manual effort.

– The real estate industry is ripe for disruption: massive, broken, yet clearly defined. We believe Adfenix has the opportunity to up-end this industry with its platform offering, and catch massive value in the meantime. The team’s achievements so far in terms of growth is very impressive – also taking into account they bootstrapped up until now. Together with an excellent international investor syndicate, we are very excited to help build the global suite for the real estate industry, says John Sjölander, Industrifonden investment lead.

The global real estate industry presents a massive market, being worth more than $217 trillion. While digital transformation has already disrupted many sectors, the real estate industry has been very slow to move with the times – until now. As a result, agents are now open to using tech platforms to reach and grow their relationship with buyers and sellers. The market for value-added services within property tech is growing fast, enabled by megatrends including AI, big data and social marketing.

– We are equipping real estate agents and their clients with the power to sell and buy homes easier and quicker. I believe that the real estate agents of tomorrow are all going to be tech-enabled, and we want to help both traditional agencies to make this leap as well as boosting the new class of hybrid online agencies with their value proposition, says Gabriel Kamienny, co-founder of Adfenix.

– We have had the great pleasure of having many awesome people joining our force lately, and this is a key reason for our success. We are delighted to have Notion Capital, Industrifonden, Starbright and Goodfellows as investors as we continue our quest to help the worlds’ estate agents reinvent themselves, Gabriel adds.

Eurazeo announces the completion of the sale of Eurazeo’s majority stake in ANF Immobilier at €22.15 per share, following satisfaction of the conditions precedent set-out in the sales agreement of October 10, 2017 (see Eurazeo press release of October 11, 2017). As a long-term responsible shareholder, Eurazeo is proud to have accompanied ANF Immobilier’s development for 13 years.  With this support, ANF Immobilier successfully restructured its historical assets in Marseille and Lyon. The real estate investment company also implemented an active development policy in its two historic cities, as well as Bordeaux and Toulouse, becoming a pivotal tertiary real estate player in the French regions.

Eurazeo realizes a disposal gain of €213 million, an investment multiple of 2. 3x and an IRR of 13%. Pro forma of this transaction and taking account of recently announced transactions, Eurazeo has net cash of nearly €700 million.

ANF Immobilier also signed today provisional sales agreements with Two companies controlled by Primonial REIM for its historic housing and commercial real estate portfolio mainly located in Marseille, and a building in Lyon. These agreements were entered into for a total consideration of €400 million, excluding transfer taxes payable by the purchaser.

The sale of Eurazeo’s majority stake will be followed by a mandatory public takeover bid(the “Public Takeover Bid”) by Icade for the remaining ANF Immobilier shares at €22.15 per share, representing a 10.2% premium on the average price over the three months preceding the start of exclusive negotiations announced on July 24, 2017.

The Public Takeover Bid is expected to be launched in November 2017, subject to publication by the AMF of a compliance notice.

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About Eurazeo

With a diversified portfolio of approximately €6 billion in assets under management, of which €1 billion is from third parties, Eurazeo is one of the leading listed investment companies in Europe. Its purpose and mission is to identify, accelerate and enhance the transformation potential of the companies in which it invests. The Company covers most private equity segments through its five business divisions – Eurazeo Capital, Eurazeo Croissance, Eurazeo PME, Eurazeo Patrimoine and Eurazeo Brands. Its solid institutional and family shareholder base, robust financial structure free of structural debt, and flexible investment horizon enable Eurazeo to support its companies over the long term. Eurazeo is notably a shareholder in AccorHotels, Asmodee, CIFA, CPK, Desigual, Elis, Europcar, Fintrax, Grape Hospitality,Iberchem,Les Petits Chaperons, Rouges, Moncler, Neovia, Novacap, Sommet Education, Trader Interactive, and also SMEs such as Péters Surgical and Groupe Flash, as well as start-ups such as Farfetch and Vestiaire Collective.