Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital plans to step up Middle East investments
Christina Gaw, Gaw's managing principal and global head of capital markets, said the firm is looking at real estate and other businesses in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as their population has a large demand for real assets.
Gaw acquired a residential building in Abu Dhabi in May for more than $150 million, and signed a pact in November with Expo City Dubai and Lingang Group to explore creating the Expo Life Science Park in Dubai.
The firm, which had $34.4 billion of assets under management as of the end of 2024, expects to close another deal in the region in the second half of the year, said Gaw, whose two elder brothers founded the company in 2005.
Gaw's interest in the Middle East comes against the backdrop of a post-pandemic property boom there, fuelled by business demand and foreign investment.
"(The Middle East) is very wealthy, what can you bring to them? It's the expertise ... they want to attract talents and different businesses," Gaw said in a May 29 interview. "And we have tenants and business who want to expand there, so we act as a bridge ... to provide them funding and local connections."
The firm plans to set up a separate vehicle to build an investment track record in the Middle East first before using its main funds in the future.
Gaw, whose main focus has been Greater China and in recent years in Japan and Australia, is also raising a $2 billion fund for private equity and private credit opportunities in Asia Pacific.
The fund is receiving interest from Middle Eastern and Asian investors, as well as in North America, who are looking to diversify amid changing geopolitics.
"Currently the U.S. has many uncertainties. Investors who have been overweighting the U.S. and have done well for many years now may say, 'I need a little level play'," Gaw said.
"Asia, on the other hand, has underperformed in the past five years, creating relative value, and people feel they need a repositioning and add some positions in Asia."
Besides the Middle East, Gaw this year also made investments including more than $1 billion in the Tokyu Plaza Ginza mall in Tokyo with a joint venture partner, and a 45% stake in Agility Asset Advisers, a real estate manager in Japan.
In its home market, Gaw said that the firm was focusing on a private credit business linked to upper-middle class residential projects, and was in talks with developers with liquidity needs as well as banks that are selling their non-performing loans.
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