Straits Trading aims to set up Blackstone-style property funds

Singapore

STRAITS Trading Co, an investor in Singapore's biggest publicly traded property trust manager, is planning "Blackstone-like" funds as Asia's appetite for real estate investments increases.

Straits Trading last month invested in ARA Asset Management Ltd, the property trust manager partly owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing, and set up a joint venture with ARA's chief executive officer John Lim to invest in property funds.

The funds, with an eight-to- 10-year time-frame, will seek to follow the model of Blackstone Group LP, the world's biggest manager of alternative assets including real estate, according to Chew Gek Khim, executive chairman of Straits Trading.

"Why can't we have the equivalent of a Blackstone in Asia? You have the money, you buy the real estate, you Reit it, you exit," she said in a recent interview. "We have not seen this done in Asia befo…