(Bloomberg) -- A joint venture backed by private equity giant Warburg Pincus LLC has bought about S$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) of real estate assets in Singapore, in the largest commercial deal in the city-state this year.
The as yet unnamed platform, which is also backed by Australia’s Lendlease Corp., will acquire business parks and specialist facilities that cater to life sciences and research and development companies. The portfolio spans a gross floor area of 4.5 million square feet across Singapore, the companies said in a statement Tuesday.
The assets are being acquired from entities associated with Blackstone Inc. and Lim Chap Huat, executive chairman of Soilbuild Group Holdings Ltd.
Warburg, whose other real estate investments in Asia include Hong Kong-based ESR Group Ltd., launched the life sciences and R&D platform with Lendlease at the end of last month. Lendlease said earlier that it is selling its life science interests in Asia to the 50:50 venture for S$129 million.
Despite attracting interest from investors, Singapore’s industrial market rarely see such big-ticket transactions — one of the largest on record — in the closely held and regulated space. Warburg’s Singapore-based platform has more than S$2 billion in assets under management following the deal.
Property deals have been subdued in the financial hub due to high interest rates and a significant pricing gap between buyers and sellers. In the first half, commercial real estate transactions fell 49% year-on-year to $2.9 billion, according to data from MSCI Inc.
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