Ping An Real Estate, the primary real estate investment platform of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Ltd (Ping An) (an SSE 50 and HSI 50 company), has acquired a 50% interest in a joint venture with Mitsubishi Estate and Lendlease and, subject to planning approval, the Joint Venture will look to develop one of the tallest office buildings in Sydney at Circular Quay.
MinterEllison is legal adviser to Ping An Real Estate on the transaction, with a team led by partner Sophie Chen from our Corporate M&A, supported by partner Wissam Abwi (Corporate M&A) and Simon Cooper (Corporate M&A).
Other partners involved include David McElhone (Real Estate), Richard Crawford (Projects, Infrastructure & Construction), Leigh De Jong (Financial Institutions) with a full team of lawyers including Dimitri Kalis (Corporate M&A), Camilla Sinclair (Corporate M&A), Will Ma (Corporate M&A), Samantha Pan (Corporate M&A), Jonathan Chow (Real Estate), Shira Saks (Real Estate) and Benjamin Wu (Real Estate).
"We thoroughly enjoyed working with Ping An Real Estate to execute this joint venture, and could not have hoped for a better result. Ping An Real Estate is a substantial institutional investor and asset manager with a growing presence in the Australian property market, and their decision to make another significant investment in Sydney real estate shows the depth of their confidence in the sector and local economy more broadly", Sophie Chen said.
Established in 2010 in Shenzhen, Ping An Real Estate is the global real estate investment and asset management platform of Ping An with AUM over US$26 billion as of 30 September 2016.
The acquisition marks the first commercial property investment made by Ping An Real Estate in Australia.
This deal will re-shape the Sydney skyline with the development of a landmark commercial office tower in one of the city's most prominent locations.
The deal also represents the largest investment by Ping An Real Estate in Australia to date, and highlights the depth of Chinese confidence in the Australian economy and real estate sector. It also demonstrated the great willingness of Chinese companies to work with both local and foreign partners on market leading transactions in Australia.
About Ping An
Established in 1988 in Shenzhen, Ping An is one of the largest insurance, banking and financial services firms in China. It has operations across China, Hong Kong and Macau and a presence in 150 countries via its branch and agent network.
Ping An was ranked No.32 in Forbes Global 2000 league table in 2015, No.96 in US Fortune Magazine's Global 500 Leading Companies ranking, and No.1 among China's non-State owned enterprises. on top of these accolades, Ping An was ranked No.9 and No. 68 among WPP Millward Brown's "BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese" and "Top 100 Global Brands respectively. It also ranked the 6th "Best Chinese Brank" by Interbrand, the largest brand consultancy in the world, remaining the top insurance brand in China.
