China
CRTL blazed a trail with its strong retail presence across China. CRTL’s China properties include the newly-acquired Xihuan Plaza Retail Mall at Xizhimen in Beijing and Raffles City Shanghai, which was rated by a local weekly there as the best retail mall in Shanghai.
CRTL also owns and manages another 32 retail malls across China, some of which are anchored by Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, and Beijing Hualian Group, the sixth largest Chinese retailer.

CRTL now enjoys a unique position in the Asian retail mall business, bringing Singapore brands to China and introducing Chinese retail brands across cities in China where it operates its malls, besides marketing these Chinese brands overseas.

In 2006, as part of its integrated China retail mall business strategy, CRTL established the CapitaRetail China Development Fund and the CapitaRetail China Incubator Fund, which together amount to over US$1 billion. The US$600 million CapitaRetail China Development Fund will invest in retail mall development projects in China. The US$425 million CapitaRetail China Incubator Fund will warehouse retail properties with the potential to generate quality income after repositioning of the property, enhancing the asset or on completion of leasing activities. One key outcome of this integrated strategy is the listing of CapitaLand’s first pure-play China retail REIT, the S$690 million CapitaRetail China Trust, on 8 December 2006.

India
India is the world’s fourth largest economy and is expected to rank third by 2010, just behind the US and China. It has a booming middle class and a growing urban population. On the micro-economic front, retail is amongst the fastest growing sectors in the country, with organised retail expected to grow 400% from US$7 billion to over US$30 billion by 2010.