SDAX lists private real estate fund to drive social impact in the UK with social housing

Singapore, 31 October 2022 – SDAX, a leading integrated investment and trading platform based in Singapore, will list CR Global UK Social Housing Fund II, a social housing fund-managed by FXHB Asset Management Pte Ltd, a Registered Fund Management Company in Singapore, to drive social impact in the UK. The second series of the GBP 200M fund will be tokenised and be made available for trading on SDAX’s platform at the end of its fund-raising round, where the first series is being listed.

A report from the UK government in December 2021 highlights that 8.5 million people in England are facing some form of unmet housing need, with approximately 1.6 million households on urgent need for social rented housing[1]. Overcrowding is also the largest problem in this statistic, with almost 2 million children living in such households. With the purpose of driving social impact in the UK, the fund will be channelling the investments towards real estate supporting the cause of meeting these social housing needs, with payments guaranteed by the local housing associations.

CR Global UK Social Housing Fund II is structured as a sub-fund of CR Global Investments Variable Capital Company (VCC) as the investment vehicle. Introduced by the MAS, the VCC is a new corporate structure for investment funds that provides greater flexibility and improved operational and tax efficiency, thereby facilitating investment fund operations and addressing global investment funds’ needs. CR Global Investments VCC works with a multitude of institutional stakeholders ranging from multi-family offices, asset management companies, securities companies, corporate clients, listed companies, and pension funds to banks.

The first series of the CR Global UK Social Housing Fund was closed for subscription and has been listed on SDAX Exchange since July 2022 for trading. The second series of the fund will continue to focus on investing in UK social housing to serve urgent social needs. Adopting a core-plus strategy with capital preservation through an asset-backed structure, the fund has an investment tenure of two-plus-two years, providing up to 7% per annum coupons with the potential for capital appreciation up to 7% upon exit.

SDAX partners with CR Global Investments VCC to raise funds in a fast, secure and cost-effective way through blockchain technology, tokenising the fund and making the investment accessible to investors through fractionalisation. With the partnership and the technology of tokenisation, investors from both the first and second series of the fund are able to trade their tokens on SDAX’s trading platform. Fractionalisation allows for investors to access this investment from GBP 50,000.

“Our partnership with SDAX helps to bring this investment opportunity to more investors in the market. The fund will address a social need and we believe in making a difference for those in need of it most in the UK. With the VCC, the economies of scale achieved will help in cost efficiencies and bridge capital channels to the UK,” said Dr Paul Inthaseni, President & CEO of Century R Pte Ltd and cornerstone investor of the fund.

The fund is managed by an experienced team of real estate professionals, and holds strong ESG credentials, including being a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment. The fund had also undergone SDAX’s proprietary ESG assessment framework to ensure the fund’s adherence to internationally recognised ESG standards for driving social impact.

“We are excited to be partnering with CR Global Investments VCC in this investment that drives tangible social impact, and bring this opportunity to our investors. With the increasing scrutiny of ESG investments in recent months, it becomes more of a necessity to exercise rigorous financial stewardship. Our ESG investments serve as a pillar of what we stand for at SDAX, and this is an excellent opportunity for us to further a social cause with rigor. We hope to work with more partners such as CR Global Investments VCC to finance towards more social causes, as well as initiatives towards net-zero (FTT),” said Raymond Poh, Chief Executive Officer, SDAX.

[1] Source: National Housing Federation