The latest offerings in investments, such as funds and structured products, and other notable developments.

UOB
United Overseas Bank has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiaries, UOB China and UOB Indonesia, are now appointed cross-currency dealers (ACCDs for Chinese renminbi/Indonesia Rupiah transactions. 

The appointment makes UOB the first Singapore bank to hold the CNY/IDR ACCD status in both markets, UOB said in a statement. UOB China is also the only Singapore-based bank approved by the People’s Bank of China (PBC) to be a CNY/IDR direct market maker, the firm said. 

ACCDs aim to promote the settlement of international goods and services trade and direct investments in the local currencies of China and Indonesia. They form part of the local currency settlement (LCS) framework between PBC and the Bank Indonesia (BI) to encourage greater bilateral trade and investment flows between the two countries.

With the ACCD licences, UOB China and UOB Indonesia can open onshore IDR and CNY accounts respectively and offer cross-currency exchange, financing, swaps and forwards in this currency pair for UOB’s corporate and institutional clients in the two markets. The CNY/IDR solutions will enable UOB clients in Indonesia and China to have direct access to onshore CNY/IDR foreign exchange (FX) rates and liquidity for hedging their trade transactions and investments.

Nuveen
Nuveen Real Estate, part of US-based asset manager Nuveen, has raised a further $213.5 million for its Asia-Pacific Cities strategy, from four Dutch and Swiss investors.

In total, the platform has raised over $900 million from twelve investors since it began in November 2018. This latest commitment signals continued interest in the open-ended strategy from European investors, with about $680 million raised so far, Nuveen said.

The platform’s current allocation stands at 64 per cent to logistics, 18 per cent to residential and 18 per cent to office assets across four Asian cities.

Nuveen Real Estate’s latest perspectives report point to ongoing strong occupier demand for modern logistics space in Asia Pacific, driven by e-commerce and the demand for fresh groceries driving the cold storage sector. The research also highlights a number of strong office markets across the region, including Sydney, Singapore and Seoul, which it believes are well positioned for long-term growth despite headwinds presented by the pandemic.

The Asia Pacific Cities strategy forms part of Nuveen Real Estate’s global resilient series, which manages more than $5 billion of assets in over 35 leading resilient cities globally. Nuveen Real Estate is one of the largest investment managers in the world with $139 billion of assets under management.

M&G Real Estate
M&G Real Estate, part of UK-based investments group M&G, has acquired almost half (49.9 per cent) interest in a prime landmark office building in Sydney’s central business and cultural precinct. 

The A$577.3 million ($421million) acquisition, has been agreed on behalf of M&G’s core Asia-Pacific property portfolio managed by Richard van den Berg. The acquisition was supported with a A$259.8 million green loan from OCBC Bank in Sydney, the sole lender and green advisor for the transaction.

Developed and co-owned by Australian property group, Mirvac, 200 George Street is a landmark building constructed in 2016. It is one of Australia’s most sustainable buildings, M&G said, and was awarded a 5.5-Star NABERS Energy rating, a 5.5-Star NABERS Water rating, Tenancy Gold Well, and a 6-Star Green Star rating.