Keppel Capital, MindChamps sign MOU to establish education real estate fund

KEPPEL Capital Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Capital Holdings (Keppel Capital), has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with MindChamps PreSchool to cooperate and establish a new private fund, which will have an initial target fund size of S$200 million.

Keppel Capital is the asset management arm of Keppel Corp. 

The duo intend to manage the proposed fund - Keppel MindChamps Education Real Estate Fund - through a joint venture in which Keppel Capital and MindChamps will each hold a 50 per cent stake.

With Keppel Capital and MindChamps as sponsors, "the proposed fund will seek to invest in preschool and early learning real estate assets in the Asia-Pacific region", they said in a release to the Singapore Exchange.

These real estate assets will be leased to MindChamps or its related fund entities, franchisees or licencees under long-term leases.

MindChamps currently has 15 company-owned-company-operated centres in Singapore and Australia, as well as 46 franchisee-owned-franchisee-operated centres in Singapore, Australia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Christina Tan, chief executive of Keppel Capital, said: "This partnership with MindChamps, one of the leaders in the early childhood education sector in Singapore with a growing global presence, is a strategic initiative for Keppel Capital. We are excited to expand into investing in education real estate assets, to create a new alternative asset class that generates stable cashflow for our investors."

David Chiem, founder CEO and executive chairman of MindChamps, said: "As we grow our unique MindChamps "3 Minds" education model globally, we have been preparing to connect both our education model - the software - with tangible property assets - the hardware. The partnership between MindChamps and Keppel Capital provides the perfect platform for launching this fund to the world."