The Wall Street Journal 19 Aug. 2013
SHANGHAI—An Asia-focused real-estate fund run by Blackstone Group LP has made an offer to acquire Chinese property developer Tysan Holdings Ltd. for 2.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$322 million), as the private-equity investor seeks to benefit from growth in the Chinese property sector.
This would be one of the first investments that the Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia fund, the firm’s first pan-Asia property fund, has made after being formed earlier this year.
From early 2010 to the beginning of 2013, China’s central government tightened property-sector controls, aiming to rein in runaway house prices. But with China’s economic growth slowing and the real-estate sector a significant contributor to demand for products ranging from steel to furniture, policy makers have taken a more relaxed approach in 2013, and property sales and prices in many cities have rebounded.
This has led some foreign institutional investors to resume their investments in China’s property market this year.