Hines Buys Melbourne Commercial Project for $152M and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In Mingtiandi’s latest roundup of regional news headlines, another Chinese developer has sold off an Australian project, with US builder Hines picking up the planned commercial development at 600 Collins Street in Melbourne for A$200 million ($152 million).

China’s homegrown challenger to Starbucks agrees to pay a US fine to settle fraud charges, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund joins forces with a New York firm to invest in UK logistics, and a Hong Kong-based fashion retailer does some belt-tightening.

Hines Buys Melbourne Commercial Project From Mainland Developer for $152M

US group Hines has acquired a development site in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD for $200m with plans for a A$1 bn plus office scheme. The site was previous held by Chinese-backed developer Landream who had planned to develop a 54-storey luxury apartment and hotel tower.

The Zaha Hadid design, which resembled a series of stacked vases, obtained planning approval in 2016 and which remains valid until 2023. The 185-metre tower looked set to proceed following a commitment in 2017 from the Hong Kong-based Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Read more>>

Luckin Coffee to Pay $180M to Settle Stock Fraud Charges

Luckin Coffee agreed to pay $180 million to settle allegations by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had engaged in scam accounting to make its financial performance appear healthier than it was.

The startup based in the Fujian provincial city of Xiamen, which claimed to be China’s answer to Starbucks, was accused by the SEC of fabricating more than RMB 2.12 billion ($311 million) in retail sales between April 2019 and January 2020, while understating its net loss by as much as 34 percent. The company also inflated its expenses by more than $190 million to cover up the fabricated revenues, the SEC said. Read more>>

GIC, Kennedy Wilson Ink $1B UK Logistics JV

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and New York-listed real estate investment firm Kennedy Wilson have entered into a joint venture to acquire and manage urban logistics properties in the UK.

The JV may also potentially expand into Ireland and Spain, said both parties in a joint statement on Friday. Read more>>

CapitaLand Brings Flexible Workspace to 79 Robinson Road 

Located at the intersection of Robinson Road, Maxwell Road and Anson Road in Singapore is a new 29-storey, Grade A office tower at 79 Robinson Road. The building with 518,000 square feet (48,124 square metres) of net lettable space is a redevelopment of the former CPF Building by Singapore property giant CapitaLand, in partnership with one of Japan’s largest trading companies, Mitsui & Co, and Japanese real estate company Tokyo Tatemono.

The neighbourhood is going to be transformed as AXA Tower located across the road will be redeveloped by Chinese tech giant Alibaba, in a joint venture with a consortium led by Singapore property firm Perennial Real Estate Holdings. When the new project is completed, it will be linked underground to 79 Robinson Road and Tanjong Pagar MRT Station. Read more>>

Retailer Bauhaus Says It Will Close All Shops Outside of HK, Macau

Hong Kong-based apparel retailer Bauhaus International, parent company of the Tough, Jeansmith and Salad brands, says it will close all its retail stores outside Hong Kong and Macau by the end of March.

The group’s loss outside Hong Kong and Macau expanded more than 13 times to HK$78.4 million in 2019 over 2018 before it narrowed to HK$68.6 million ($8.9 million) this year. Most of the Bauhaus offline retailing operations beyond Hong Kong and Macau are in the mainland and Taiwan. Read more>>

SLB to Seek Shareholder Nod for Thye Hong Centre Purchase

SLB Development has completed its S$112.5 million ($84.7 million) acquisition of all the strata units and the common property in industrial building Thye Hong Centre at 2 Leng Kee Road.

The Catalist-listed property developer paid the remaining sum of close to S$106.9 million, representing 95 percent of the purchase price, it said in a filing on Thursday after market close. Read more>>

Singapore CBD Office Rents to End 2020 Down 10%

Cushman & Wakefield is projecting rents in Singapore’s central business district to land at S$9.54 ($7.18) per square foot per month by the end of 2020, down 10 percent from 2019’s peak of S$10.66 per square foot per month.

The real estate services firm expects rents to continue their decline in 2021, it said in a report on Thursday. The fall comes as companies start negotiating for shorter leases, convinced that increased flexibility from a prolonged period of work from home will translate to a reduction in real estate footprint needs, the report said. Read more>>

BDx Data Centres Sets Up Singapore Partnership

Big Data Exchange (BDx), a pan-Asian carrier-neutral data centre cluster, today announced a new partnership with Cogent Communications in the company’s Singapore (SIN1) data centre facility. Cogent Communications is among the top three globally ranked carriers specialising in providing IP transit, dedicated internet access, ethernet transport, SD-WAN and colocation services.

Singapore boasts the most megawatts per capita globally, and its desirable and strategic location in the centre of Asia empowers enterprises to access Asia Pacific’s most rapidly emerging markets easily. Conversely, the high demand for colocation space makes data centre availability hard to come by for new customers. Acquired by BDx earlier this year, SIN1 is one of the facilities still available to service new customers in capacity-constrained Singapore. Read more>>

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