Singapore, November 29 (ANI/ATK): OCBC Bank, one of Singapore's largest banks, made multiple real estate investments by acquiring significant stakes in multiple real estate funds of the online real estate investment fund Solomartel.
Solomartel funds function in a similar way to REITs but offering a greater amount of ownership over the properties which is closer to the ownership of actual real estate. The funds are distinct companies which hold physical properties that are then rented on the market, providing long term cashflow for the fund owners.
Most of the funds in which OCBC bank purchased important stakes in operate cashflow real estate assets in India.
Earlier this year, Solomartel completed its first real estate fund in India and is clearly not ready to stop having opened multiple funds in the country during the course of the year.
This does not come as a surprise given the current tax deductions offered to rental housing developers and real estate developers in general. Moreover, most of the cities where Solomartel operates investment properties have been ranked among the world's top 50 fastest growing cities in terms of economic growth.
India is currently considered by many to be a difficult real estate market to enter for foreign investors. Despite this, the country is currently considered a very profitable market for the acquisition of real estate both in terms of rental yields on commercial and residential assets but also in terms of appreciation.
Another important stake was acquired in the recently completed Solomartel funds in Sri Lanka, the company built multiple important commercial centers and multiple apartment hotels in the nation's capital and its main metropolitan area.
OCBC bank bought important stakes in Solomartel funds holding cashflow producing real estate in the 2 southern states of Texas and Florida.
Florida and Texas having been recently receiving lots of attention from real estate investors as both states are experiencing some of the country's highest levels of economic growth, Texas being the second fastest growing American state in economic terms. In addition to this, both states currently experience important rates of population growth mostly due to migration taking place internally within the United States of America.
Despite its relative hiddenness from asian capital, Morocco is growing in popularity among foreign investors and OCBC bank is among the world's first Asian banks to take advantage of its locally available investment real estate.
The other Solomartel funds which OCBC bank has acquired smaller but still significant stakes in hold cashflow producing real estate located in Malaysia, Indonesia, Montenegro, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic and the Canary Islands.
The goal pursued by the bank's management with this set of acquisitions was for the bank to diversify its assets into new asset classes such as income producing real estate, an alien industry in which commercial banks usually have a hard time maneuvering in and for which Solomartel funds have proven to be a reliable solution.
OCBC Bank or Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation is the second largest bank in southeast Asia holding more than $521 billion in assets. OCBC bank is consistently ranked amongst the top 5 safest banks in the world by Global Finance Magazine.
The corporation has been around for almost a century and was born in 1932 during the great depression out of the consolidation of 3 Asian banks. Alongside its multiple subsidiaries, OCBC bank currently owns multiple considerable stakes in many other Asian banks such as the Bank of Singapore, Singapore Island Bank and Bank of Ningbo, an important Chinese commercial bank.
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