South Korea's 726 trillion ($605 billion) National Pension Service and Allianz Group announced a strategic partnership to build a multibillion-dollar portfolio of core, high-quality real estate in the Asia-Pacific region.
The $2.3 billion, 50-50 investment vehicle will be structured as a Singapore-domiciled, closed-end fund called Allianz Real Estate Asia-Pacific Core I, said an Allianz news release on Monday.
Allianz Real Estate will be the fund's general partner. There will be no other investors, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Allianz said.
Leverage could further expand the platform's investment capacity to $4.6 billion, the spokeswoman confirmed.
For Allianz Real Estate, which has previously focused on investing on behalf the broader Allianz group, Allianz Real Estate Asia-Pacific Core I represents "our first third-party equity funds," Francois Traush, CEO of Allianz Real Estate, said in the release.
"This is a significant step forward in our ambition of bringing like-minded third-party investors to invest alongside Alliance," he added.
Hyo-Joon Ahn, the chief investment officer of Jongju-based NPS, in the same news release called the partnership with Allianz "an excellent opportunity to expand our exposure to quality assets in the Asia-Pacific region through a co-investment with a like-minded institutional investor."
An NPS spokesman could not immediately be reached for further comment.
The venture will focus on core investment opportunities across office, logistics, multifamily and student housing sectors in Japan, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China.
