DLA Piper has advised a newly established fund named Enhanced Real Estate Series APAC II - China Outlets SCSp known as COMF, managed by TH Real Estate, on the fund's acquisition of a pipeline of designer outlet malls under the "Florentia Village" brand in China, closing on two malls in Wuqing and Shanghai to start. The fund has equity commitments of US$750 million, with a total capacity of US$1 billion with gearing, and is backed by Allianz, Gaw Capital Partners, TIAA General Account, a Frankfurt-based German asset management company and others.

The first acquisition, Florentia Village Jingjin in Wuqing, closed in November 2017 for about US$550 million, with the second acquisition, Florentia Village Shanghai, scheduled to close in March 2018. DLA Piper also represents the operator of the outlet malls, RDM Asia, on all of its asset management agreements.

Florentia Village malls house over 200 international luxury brands with their main customers comprising the growing number of middle class and affluent shoppers who no longer want to fly to Europe for luxury brands. This is a growing segment of the retail market with limited competition for the time being.

The DLA Piper team was led by the Hong Kong Partner and Head of Real Estate in Asia, Susheela Rivers, and Senior Associate Janice Yau Garton, supported by the other members of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Real Estate teams.