Fangda represented Ping An Life Insurance Company of China on its acquisition of an equity stake in China Raffles Group from CapitaLand. The property portfolio includes Raffles City Shanghai, Raffles City Beijing, Raffles City Ningbo, Raffles City Chengdu, Raffles City Changning (Shanghai), and Raffles City Hangzhou. Each of them is an integrated business center, comprising business offices, hotels, and other different real estate components. The total asset value of the portfolio is RMB46.7 billion, in which Ping An Life Insurance has invested about RMB33 billion. The transaction was signed and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. CapitaLand will continue to operate and manage the six properties.

The six underlying properties in the transaction are all part of the “Raffles” brand, CapitLand’s core property line. These properties were recognized as one of the 2020 Brands of the Year: China Most Influential Shopping Center by a Chinese award agency. The properties are located in central business districts in China’s major cities. The six properties have recorded high occupancy rates since 2019 of between 90% and 95% even during the COVID-19 pandemic. The assets are attractive to Ping An Life Insurance since they offer steady investment returns over the long term, which is fully in keeping with Ping An’s investment perspective.

Fangda handled all aspects of the transaction for Ping An, including transaction structure design, legal due diligence, transaction documentation, insurance compliance, merger control filing and closing related matters. The cross-practice, cross-office (including Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong) Fangda team was led by partners Maria Wang and Zhenyu Wang supported by real estate and construction partners Yingying Wang and Frank Fan, financial institution group partner FANG Jian, antitrust partners Michael Han and Jin Wang, and corporate/M&A partner Hao Zhang.

We regularly advise strategic inbound and outbound investors, international private equity sponsors, institutional investors and other investors on their cross-border acquisitions, disposals and other forms of investments, including of and in real estate assets and portfolios in Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR and offshore jurisdictions. We are familiar with complex cross-border transaction structures and common law-related concepts. Together with our superior China real estate expertise, we are renowned for our ability to act both as PRC counsel and international counsel in cross-border real estate transactions. We regularly advise on real estate transactions of values of at least RMB5 billion.