Gaw Capital: Building a Green Future | Building Asia With UOB
Hong Kong's local community malls play an important role in the lives of residents. Their convenient locations minimise transport complexity and they stock items that people rely on to live no matter what the economic conditions are.
In 2017, Gaw Capital led two consortiums to acquire 'People's Place' – a retail portfolio covering 29 different property types, ranging from old markets, malls to community spaces across Hong Kong – with financing underwritten by UOB.
The vision was to revive these local malls and to create a space catered to the changing needs of the community while increasing the value of the real estate investment.
Given its scale and complexity, the project became one of the largest real estate syndication loans in Asia, with a total deal size of HK$35 billion over two en bloc phases. As a result, the People's Place portfolio has now been transformed into hip and modern retail spaces, with a current combined asset price of HK$47.5 billion.
In 2019, Gaw Capital made a successful overseas acquisition for DUO Tower and DUO Galleria in Singapore. The green loan project is one of the largest green syndicated loans provided by UOB at that time, and Gaw Capital became one of the first Asian fund managers to use green loans. The success of the deal opened doors to other real estate projects with Gaw Capital that required green financing.
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