Noah Holdings, a China-based provider of wealth management products to mainland customers, said yesterday it planned to launch a real estate fund worth as much as Rmb18bn ($2.85bn) as cash-strapped developers seeking alternatives to bank lending.
The move comes at a difficult time for the property market, where sentiment on its prospects is downbeat given Beijing’s determination to bring prices lower by clamping down on credit to developers. However, it is precisely because developers cannot get loans that accounts for Noah’s move.
Noah, with seed capital from Sequoia Capital, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm, is one of a host of companies that aim to cater to wealthy entrepreneurs in China.