Warburg Pincus invests $300m in China commercial redevelopment JV

Warburg Pincus has plans to invest $300 million in a new joint venture with Shanghai-based urban renewal operator CREATER to acquire and redevelop real estate projects in China’s first-tier cities over the next three years.

CREATER, which was founded in 2006, focuses on converting old and underutilized buildings into shared office, retail and exhibition space covering 330,000 square meters (3.55 million square feet) across its 26 projects.

Recently, Warburg Pincus created another Chinese joint venture. Warburg Pincus and Hande Group will invest a total of $1 billion in a new joint venture to pursue special situations investments in real estate projects in China. The joint venture’s commitment will target to reach assets under management of $5 billion within the next three years.

In addition, Warburg Pincus appointed Gregory Wells as an entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) to explore and build the firm’s practice in the real estate credit space in Asia Pacific. Wells has more than 30 years’ experience in the real estate industry with an investment and legal background and a particular focus on China, Japan and Australia. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, Wells was the managing director and head of Asia Pacific of Forum Partners.

Warburg Pincus also invested $181 million into Hong Kong–based Weave Co-Living, a co-living rental accommodation provider