Wanda Explores Sale of Digital Payments Unit and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of regional real estate headlines, Dalian Wanda’s dealmaking continues as the group shops its payment unit to prospective buyers, and South Korean pension giant NPS reports a healthy first-quarter return fuelled by local stocks. Also in the news, sales of second-hand private condos in Singapore fell during April and Shanghai’s Fosun gets a ratings upgrade.

Wanda Weighs Selling Payments Licence for $141M

Dalian Wanda Group is in talks with prospective buyers, including TikTok maker ByteDance, regarding its Chinese payments unit as the tourism-to-retail conglomerate tries to shore up its liquidity, people familiar with the matter said.

Wanda has been in discussions to sell its digital payments licence for about RMB 1 billion ($141 million), though some prospective buyers said the price could be lower based on negotiations, the people said, requesting not to be named discussing private matters. Read more>>

Korea’s NPS Delivers 6.35% Return in Q1 on Strong Stocks

South Korea’s National Pension Service, the country’s operator of pension funds that saw up to KRW 80 trillion ($60.6 billion) in valuation losses last year, managed to make up for the losses by achieving a return of more than 6 percent in the first quarter.

NPS Investment Management said Tuesday that it achieved a 6.35 percent return on its assets in the first quarter. By asset, it posted a 12.42 percent return on Korean stocks, followed by overseas stocks (9.7 percent), foreign bonds (5.38 percent), alternative investments (3.49 percent) and domestic bonds (3.25 percent). Read more>>

Singapore Private Condo Resale Volumes Fell 17.9% in April

Private condominium resale volumes in Singapore fell in April as prices rose, according to flash estimates from SRX and 99.co released Tuesday.

Resale transactions for condo units totalled 919 in April, a 17.9 percent decrease from the 1,119 units resold in March. Read more>>

Wanda Eyes Hotel Sale to Fosun to Ease Liquidity Crunch

Dalian Wanda Commercial Management is looking to sell a hotel in Shanghai to Fosun International, a report said.

Wanda is planning to sell the Wanda Reign Hotel in Shanghai apart from selling several shopping malls to ease a liquidity crunch, the report by Caixin revealed. Read more>>

Fosun’s Ratings Affirmed by S&P, Market Warms to Chinese Private Enterprises

S&P Global Ratings issued a report on Tuesday raising Fosun International’s rating outlook to stable.

This move implies that with continuous efforts to optimise capital and asset base, the Chinese conglomerate’s short-term liquidity pressure has been greatly eased and its ratings have been affirmed by the agency. Read more>>

Singapore Developers Mull Launch Deferrals, Discounts After ABSD Hike

Deferring new launches, offering discounts and building smaller apartments are some possible strategies real estate sector players expect as developers adjust to the increase in additional buyer’s stamp duty, a National University of Singapore survey has found.

The survey, conducted by NUS Real Estate, sought the views of between 30 and 40 senior executives of real estate firms, of which there were about 20 developers. NUS Real Estate represents the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies and the Department of Real Estate. Read more>>

Pure DC Launches Data Centre in Jakarta

Pure Data Centres has announced the launch of a facility in Jakarta.

“Pure DC officially launched its first hyperscale data centre in Indonesia last week!” Chandra Irawan, Pure’s country manager/director for Indonesia, said on LinkedIn. “With 20MW IT load capacity, it is ready to support digitalisation and cloud computing in the region.” Read more>>

New Warning Signs Emerge for China’s Property Market

New data show that China’s massive property sector is still struggling to turn around, despite signs of recovery earlier this year.

“In a reversal from April, prices accelerated in the housing market but sales slowed,” the US-based China Beige Book said in its report for May, released Tuesday. That’s based on the research firm’s survey of 1,085 businesses conducted from 18 to 25 May. Read more>>

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