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Sandy Li

Ayala Corp, the holding company of the third-richest Philippine family, has joined the investment  rush in Greater China by pouring more than US$100 million into Macau and  Beijing, according to sources.

It is the conglomerate's first move into Macau and Beijing since  Ayala  and its subsidiary Ayala Land, the biggest developer in the Philippines, formed a private equity fund in August last year to invest in Asian property markets, including  the mainland, India and Thailand.

Due to institutional investors' strong interest in Asian property markets, the size of the fund  would  grow to US$300 million from  US$200 million, the sources said.

Of the total, Ayala  and its subsidiary invested US$75 million,   with the  remainder  raised from third-party investors.

'The fund bought a residential site in Macau and an existing retail property in Beijing,'  sources  said.

The group planned to build a luxury residential project on the Macau site, while repositioning the retail property in Beijing  to generate higher rental income, the sources said.

'The residential project in Macau will bring in a totally new concept,' said the sources without giving details.

They said the acquisition  of the two properties cost  about US$100 million.

The fund, which will be managed by Arch Capital Management, is based in Hong Kong and will be managed by Richard Yu, who has  invested  more than US$3 billion in Asian real estate over  the past 17 years.

A spokesman for Arch Capital Management confirmed the acquisitions but refused to disclose details.

'We will continue looking for opportunities in the region. But we will be very selective in Hong Kong as the city's property prices are relatively high,' he said.

In 2000, Ayala   joined forces with a consortium led by Asia Standard International to build a luxury residential project, Grosvenor Place, in Repulse Bay at a cost of HK$600 million.

Ayala has a 20 per cent stake in the project, while Asia Standard  owns 50.1 per cent with the balance held by British property giant Grosvenor Estate Holdings.

Ayala is known for building  the Philippines' financial district of Makati in Metro Manila.

The district consists of the  country's stock exchange and luxury hotel chains including the Peninsula Manila and Mandarin Oriental.



Ayala joins investment rush with Beijing, Macau projects