In the last 30 years, the real estate arm of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has grown from a small internal division to one of the top 10 property companies in the world.
Formed in 1982 as GIC’s real estate investment department, GIC Real Estate now has seven offices – in Singapore, London, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo – and employs almost 150 people all over the world, according to its website.
GIC RE accounts for about 12 per cent of GIC’s portfolio, which is worth more than US$200 billion (S$278 billion), according to reports. GIC is estimated to be the world’s fourth-biggest sovereign fund.
Alongside conventional assets such as apartment and office buildings, GIC RE also owns unusual properties, including student housing and sports facilities. In total, it holds over 300 investments across more than 30 countries.
Some of its trophies include the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney, Australia; the Seoul Finance Centre in South Korea; the Westin Paris in France; the Shiodome City Centre in Tokyo, Japan; the Franklin Centre in Chicago, the United States; and the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Greenhithe, England.
In recent years, GIC RE has embarked on a buying spree around the world.
In 2007, it formed a joint venture with Sumitomo Corporation to invest up to US$1.3 billion in Japanese retail properties, making it one of the largest private retail property investors in Japan.
That year, it also bought stakes in MetroCentre, Europe’s largest shopping centre, and Westfield Parramatta, one of Australia’s biggest malls.
In February 2008, the company partnered ING Real Estate to buy a shopping centre near Rome, Italy, for 400 million euros (S$832.3 million), in what was the largest single-asset transaction in the Italian retail market.
In the same month, GIC RE also bought the Westin Tokyo in Japan and a stake in a mall in Helsinki, Finland.
But not all of GIC RE’s investments have been profitable. Last week, the company reported losses from its investment of about US$675 million in New York’s Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the largest residential enclave in Manhattan.
Source: Sunday Times, 17 Jan 2010
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