Greenland HK launches $8 bln fund with Kuwait, announces new strategy

HONG KONG, April 26 (Reuters) - Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Ltd has signed a deal to set up an US$8 billion real estate fund with Kuwait Strategic Investor and to take a stake in a luxury New York City development, it said on Tuesday. Greenland Hong Kong, the subsidiary of China's state-backed Greenland Group, said it would issue 459,005,021 convertible preferred shares to Kuwait Strategic Investor's Al Waseet International. Conversion of the shares would make Kuwait Strategic Investor the second-biggest shareholder in Greenland Hong Kong. In exchange for the shares, Greenland Hong Kong would acquire a 41 percent effective interest in the luxury Project Lane real estate development in New York City. The US$8 billion joint real estate fund would invest in a range of high-end residential and commercial properties and would begin "in-depth cooperation with several Middle East sovereign funds", Greenland Hong Kong said in a statement. Greenland Hong Kong also said the deal marked a new strategy in which it would become an "asset light" macro asset manager instead of just a property developer. It also said it would be involved in internet financing. (Reporting by Twinnie Siu and Clare Baldwin; editing by Susan Thomas)