Weekly Digest: GIC sells UK mall stake; Partners Group drives deals between CIC, Gulf SWFs

TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK

GIC sold its 17.5% stake in the Bluewater shopping centre in the UK for £120 million ($152 million) to Land Securities Group (Landsec), a London-based commercial property development and investment company.

GIC reportedly acquired its stake in the mall in 2005 from the property investing unit of Prudential, now M&G Real Estate, for £318 million.

Bluewater is the fifth largest mall in London. The mall has more than 300 outlets across three levels. In a June 25 press release, Landsec said it now owns 66.25% of Bluewater.

Source: Landsec

Partners Group is working with China Investment Corp (CIC) and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to curate growing investment flows as the two regions cosy up.

The Swiss firm has long-established relationships with CIC and some of the large Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to invest their money globally.

These relationships allow the firm to understand these funds' investment objectives and find opportunities to collaborate between regions and organisations, Kevin Lu, chairman of Asia for Partners Group, said in an interview.

Source: South China Morning Post

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, one of the largest investment firms globally, is seeing fewer opportunities to put money to work in emerging markets.

“Our emerging markets investments have evolved over time,” CPP Investments Chief Executive Officer John Graham said Wednesday in a Bloomberg interview in London, adding that the firm has reduced its exposure to the region. “The opportunity set is not as big as it once was.”

The investment firm’s target strategic portfolio weighting for emerging markets is 16% for the year, according to its latest annual report, down from 22% last year.

Source: Bloomberg

OTHER INVESTMENT NEWS

AUSTRALIA

Brighter Super, an A$32 billion ($21.3 billion) Australian pension fund, has reduced its allocation to domestic equities, citing the impact of the slowing Chinese economy.

Brighter Super chief investment officer Mark Rider said his team recently pulled back on domestic equities from about 27% of his firm’s default investment option to around 24.5%.

The fund is looking to invest more in private equity as it seeks to diversify and has also increased its allocation to international stocks.

Source: Bloomberg

GigSuper, the superannuation fund designed for the self-employed, has entered members' voluntary liquidation, meaning its shareholders agreed to wind up the business and cease trading.

DW Advisory confirmed to Financial Standard that GigSuper had no obligations to creditors as at June 24.

Launched in 2017, GigSuper had less than 200 members and $2.8 million in assets. Diversa was the trustee, while Grow Inc was the superannuation administrator.

Source: Financial Standard

HONG KONG

Hong Kong on June 26 officially launched the eMPF, a digital management platform for the city’s compulsory pension scheme for 4.75 million members, as YF Life Trustees became the first trustee to migrate to the platform on the same day.

This marks a milestone of the most significant reform of Hong Kong’s pension system since its establishment in 2000.

China Life will be the next trustee to go digital on July 29. The rest of the providers will be onboard gradually by the end of next year.

Source: Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority

The Hong Kong Academy for Wealth Legacy will host a three-day summit in September, marking its latest effort to promote the city as a hub for wealthy families to pursue investments, establish succession planning and support various charities.

“The academy will arrange various activities to allow the family office principals to share their knowledge on how to develop their businesses and investments, as well as to build up their family legacy through various development goals including philanthropy, impact investments, arts and culture, and more,” Angel Chia, the academy’s newly appointed executive director, said in an interview.

Source: South China Morning Post

INDIA

The Indian government is planning to infuse Rs50 billion ($599 million) into three state-run general insurers National Insurance, Oriental Insurance, and United India Insurance to strengthen their balance sheets.

The solvency ratio for the three insurers remained at about 0.58 as of December 2023, compared to the regulatory requirement of 1.50 times. The solvency ratio is the excess of capital and the value of assets over the insured liabilities. It indicates the buffer an insurer must settle all claims in extreme situations.

So far, the government has infused Rs175 billion into these insurers.

Source: The Economic Times

INDONESIA

Singapore’s GIC and Metro Pacific Tollways Corp (MPTC) will take up a stake worth $1 billion in a unit of Indonesian toll-road operator PT Jasa Marga.

The companies will take a 35% stake in Jasamarga Transjawa Tol, a network of 13 toll roads in the provinces of west, central and east Java, MPTC said in a statement on July 1.

MPTC is already a major toll-road operator in Southeast Asia with investments in Indonesia via Nusantara Infrastructure and Vietnam-based CII Bridges and Roads Investment. MPTC said the addition of Jasamarga Transjawa Tol's toll roads would further boost its portfolio to 1,130 kilometers connecting various economic zones in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Source: Reuters

JAPAN

Teachers’ Ventures Growth (TVG), an investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and asset manager KKR led a funding round for Japan-based SmartHR, a cloud-based human resources and labor management software startup.

Together with existing investors, TVG and KKR raised ¥21.4 billion ($130) for its Series E fundraising round, SmartHR said on July 1.

The fundraising round comes three years after the company raised a $142.5 million Series D at a valuation of $1.6 billion.

Source: SmartHR

KOREA

The National Pension Service (NPS) has finalised eight candidates for its largest-ever domestic alternative investment project. These firms will now compete for the final four spots in a highly anticipated selection process.

The shortlisted firms, which include MBK Partners, Premier Partners, Praxis Capital, Well to Sea Investment, VIG Partners, JKL Partners, J&PE, and Hanwha Investment & Securities PE, were notified of their selection on June 28, according to investment banking sources.

In April, the NPS announced its ambitious plan to select domestic private equity fund managers, aiming to allocate a total of W1.55 trillion ($1.14 billion) across three categories: Private equity, private credit, and venture capital. Private equity alone is set to receive up to W1 trillion.

Source: BusinessKorea

Woori Financial Group is considering potential acquisitions of Tongyang Life Insurance and ABL Life Insurance, the firm said on June 27.

Woori recently signed a nonbinding agreement with the two insurers' largest shareholder, China’s Dajia Insurance Group, and plans to set out on an inspection, Woori said. However, no decision has been made regarding detailed conditions for the potential acquisition deals.

A domestic business daily reported on June 26 that Woori would snap up the two life insurers at around $2.2 billion. Woori has been seeking to diversify its business portfolio into financial services to reduce its heavy reliance on bank revenue.

Source: Woori Financial Group

MALAYSIA

Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP), Malaysia’s federal employees’ pension fund, is working with Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence.

Both KWAP and UMK have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore collaboration in a few areas, including research grants for developing localised large language models (LLMs) that support the national language and the establishment of an AI governance framework and ethics.

The partnership is in line with KWAP’s AI adoption programme, as well as the country’s National Artificial Intelligence Roadmap 2021-2025, KWAP said in a statement on June 26.

Source: KWAP

Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) posted a 25% increase in net income for the financial year ended December 31, 2023, mainly driven by its diversification of asset classes.

The government-owned asset manager for all Malaysians, and the fund manager of the country's Bumiputera community, respectively, recorded a net income of RM16.4 billion ($3.47 billion) up from RM13 billion in 2022. Its assets under management, however, declined 1.3% to below RM337 billion.

“PNB looks ahead to 2024 with both caution and optimism…. The global landscape continues to evolve, marked by rapid changes and unforeseen challenges,” PNB said.

Source: PNB

PHILIPPINES

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) earmarked P6 billion ($102 million) of emergency loans for its members and pensioners affected by the Mount Kanlaon eruption, El Niño phenomenon, and typhoon Aghon.

In a news release on June 25, the GSIS said a total of 231,250 calamity-hit members may benefit from the emergency loan program.

The GSIS said members may borrow up to P40,000 if they have existing loans, or P20,000 if they do not.

Source: GSIS

SINGAPORE

Decarbonisation Partners, a partnership between Temasek and BlackRock, led a growth equity funding round for Neustark, a Switzerland-based carbon removal provider.

The partnership raised $69 million in a funding round to underpin its rapid scale-up in the carbon dioxide removal (CDR) market and support its mission to permanently remove 1 million tons of carbon by 2030.

The Swiss CDR specialist has developed and deployed an intellectual property-protected solution that allows the durable removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by capturing CO2 at point source, then binding it in mineral waste streams via an accelerated mineralization process.

Source: Neustark

The above briefs were curated from company news releases and third-party sources.