Wanda Asks Investors to Wait as HK IPO Stumbles and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

China’s one-time richest man leads today’s collection of real estate headlines from around the region as Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group asks investors to give it a bit more time to try for a much-delayed Hong Kong IPO. Also making the list today, CapitaLand’s flagship commercial REIT reports rising income, Hong Kong authorities approve plans for Henderson Land’s mega-project on the Central waterfront and Evergrande misses a court deadline for defending against a winding up petition.

China’s Wanda in Talks With Investors as Hong Kong IPO Collapses 

After refiling its application for a Hong Kong IPO four times, Wang Jianlin’s Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group is in talks with investors to restructure RMB 30 billion ($4 billion) in pre-IPO financing, according to a report in mainland media outlet ThePaper.cn.

Hong Kong’s PAG, Guangzhou’s Country Garden and other investors had provided short-term financing to Dalian Wanda Group which would need to be repaid if the shopping mall development and management unit fails to achieve an HKEX listing within this year. Read more>>

CapitaLand’s CICT Sees Rental Income Grow After 2022 Acquisitions

CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust’s net property income (NPI) grew a slight 0.6 percent on year to S$275 million ($200 million) for the third quarter ended September. Gross revenue for the quarter rose 4.6 per cent to S$391.3 million, said the manager in a business update on Thursday.

For the three quarters ended September, gross revenue for the SGX-listed REIT increased 9.8 percent to S$1.2 billion and NPI rose 6.8 percent to S$827.3 million following a set of acquisitions in the first half of 2022. Read more>>

Henderson Land’s New Central Harbourfront Project Gets Green Light

Henderson Land’s New Central Harbourfront development has won approval to build three buildings with a gross floor area of 1.75 million square feet (162,580 square metres).

The Buildings Department granted approvals to 22 sets of building plans in August, nine of which were for residential/commercial developments and five for purely commercial use. Read more>>

BOC Chief’s Arrest Linked to Business with Evergrande

After putting the billionaire founder of Evergrande, a heavily indebted property firm, under investigation for possible crimes, Beijing is expanding its probes to include bankers and financial institutions that facilitated developers’ risky behavior, people familiar with the matter say.

Among those under scrutiny: a former head of Bank of China, one of the country’s biggest lenders, the people said. Earlier this month, Liu Liange, who served as Bank of China’s chairman and Communist Party secretary from 2019 until early this year, was arrested on charges of accepting bribes and illegally granting loans. Read more>>

Evergrande Failed to File Documents for Winding Up Defense

China Evergrande Group did not submit defence documents to a Hong Kong court before a deadline that comes ahead of a winding-up hearing against the company scheduled for next Monday, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

The embattled Chinese developer was directed by the Hong Kong High Court to submit new documents by mid-last week, the person said. Read more>>

ESR-Logos REIT Posts 19.4% Rise in Q3 Net Property Income

ESR-Logos REIT’s net property income for the third quarter grew 19.4 percent year on year to S$206.1 million ($150 million), its manager said on Thursday.

Gross revenue, meanwhile, rose by 19.2 percent on the year to S$290.7 million for the three months ended Sep 30, 2023. Read more>>

Rolls-Royces, Porsche Seized from Singapore Suspect’s Home

Four cars were seized from the Good Class Bungalow previously occupied by Su Jianfeng, one of the 10 foreign nationals linked to the S$2.8 billion ($2 billion) money-laundering case.

On Wednesday, police officers were seen outside a GCB along Third Avenue as the cars were towed away. Su, 35, had resided at the GCB earlier and was arrested there during an island-wide blitz in August. Read more>>

EC World REIT Asset Sales Fail

EC World REIT has failed to sell two logistics assets in Zhejiang, China, as the REIT sponsor could not obtain sufficient financing for the proposed divestment.

This rendered sponsor Forchn Holdings and the purchasers unable to complete the deal by the already postponed long-stop date on 31 October, the trust’s manager said Thursday. Read more>>

Equinix Trims Revenue Forecast on Weaker Corporate Spending

Data centre company Equinix trimmed its annual revenue forecast on Wednesday on worries that a tough macroeconomic environment would prompt companies to scale back their plans for cloud-based infrastructure.

The California-based company expects annual revenue between $8.17 billion and $8.21 billion, compared with its prior outlook of $8.17 billion to $8.25 billion. Read more>>

Singapore Resale Home Prices Climb Despite Slower Market

Prices of resale condominiums in Singapore inched up during September, despite a slump in transactions amid the Hungry Ghost month seasonal lull.

Resale prices rose by 0.8 percent in September, a slower pace compared with the 1 percent increase recorded in August, according to flash figures from real estate information providers 99.co and SRX on Thursday.  Property analysts said slower market activity due to the lunar seventh month – which ended in mid-September – and cautious sentiment among foreign buyers dragged down the prices. Read more>>

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