Gaw Capital to wrap up record $3bn fundraise – Exclusive

The Hong Kong-based private equity real estate firm has corralled $2.2bn for its sixth flagship opportunity fund and another $800m for a co-investment sidecar.

Hong Kong Colliers

Gaw Capital Partners is poised to break its own fundraising record for its Asia opportunity real estate fund series with $3 billion, PERE can reveal.

PERE understands that the latest fundraising effort will comprise a $2.2 billion final closing for its sixth Asian real estate opportunity fund, Gaw Capital Real Estate Fund VI, and another $800 million in sidecar commitments from investors. Gaw declined to comment. About 80 percent of the capital raised for the vehicle are re-ups from the firm’s existing investors, according to a source.

Launched in 2018, the Hong Kong-based firm originally set a hard-cap of $2 billion for the blind-pool fund. However, it had to push the cap to $2.2 billion following strong investor demand. The firm had raised $1.3 billion for Fund VI and another $650 million in co-investments as of October 2018, according to a PERE report.

The total equity haul for Fund VI exceeds that of its predecessor by more than $1.2 billion. In 2017, the firm raised a total of $1.8 billion — $1.3 billion for Fund V and another $500 million from a sidecar vehicle.

PERE has learned that Fund VI will offer more thematic platforms focused on domestic consumption, which the firm will seek to grow through co-investments. Education, healthcare, data centers and co-sharing concepts will be big themes for the fund because these sectors are not expected to be affected significantly by geopolitical volatility.

A source told PERE that Fund VI has deployed 30 percent of its capital so far and it is seeking returns in the high teens, the same as its predecessor. Fund V has been fully invested and has seen one exit that has generated a 20 percent plus internal rate of return, according to a source.