Fosun’s Guo Guangchang hasn’t lost his taste for travel assets
Shares in Fosun’s money losing tourism unit have been on the slide since their Hong Kong IPO in December, and now mainland investment guru Guo Guangchang leads Mingtiandi’s roundup of real estate headlines with the news that he is set to add to Fosun Tourism’s financial challenges with the purchase of the UK’s oldest travel agency. Also getting some ink around the region is the first downturn in Hong Kong’s primes office market since 2013 and Singapore’s Ascendas India Trust has been doing some shed-shopping in the Mumbai area. Keep reading for all these stories and more from around the region.
Fosun In Advanced Talks to Take Over Thomas Cook In £750M Deal
China’s Fosun Tourism Group is in advanced talks with Thomas Cook Group Plc and its lenders regarding a combined £750 million ($940 million) fund-raising by the world’s oldest travel company.
The proposed deal would give Fosun Tourism control of the British firm’s core packaged-tour business and minority interest in its airline business, marking one of the most significant purchases of a British company by a Chinese group in years. Read more>>
HK Prime Office Market Slips for the First Time in 6 Years
Hong Kong’s prime offices, the world’s most expensive for four years running, are losing their cache as a year-long US-China trade war has deterred companies from taking on more space, forcing landlords to offer discounts.
Grade A office rent in the Central district dropped 0.1 percent in the second quarter, reflecting the first quarterly decline since the final three months of 2013, while rents in Wan Chai and Causeway Bay fell 0.4 percent during the same period, according to JLL’s data. Read more>>
Ascendas India Trust Acquires Mumbai Shed Project for INR 2.15B
Ascendas India Trust is planning to finance the construction of an additional warehouse in western India and acquire it upon completion for a total investment of around INR 2.15 billion ($31 million).
The warehouse is to be located in the Arshiya Free Trade Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) in Panvel near Mumbai in western India, and will have a total leasable area of 325,503 square feet, the trustee-manager of the mainboard-listed business trust said on 11 July. Read more>>
Chinese Estates Boss Makes HK$15M Gain on Future Land Bet
Joseph Lau Luen-hung, the Hong Kong billionaire owner of Chinese Estates Holdings, is estimated to have pocketed HK$15 million (US$1.9 million) of paper gains in a week through an astute punt in one of China’s biggest real estate developers.
Fair Eagle Securities, a wholly owned unit of Chinese Estates, bought nearly 40.9 million shares of Future Land Development Holdings on the Hong Kong stock exchange at HK$7.19 per share on July 4, according to the Hong Kong stock exchange’s CCASS Shareholding Search system, displaying the data two days after the transactions. Read more>>
CapitaLand One Pearl Studios to Start From S$970,000
The One Pearl Bank sales gallery will be open for public viewing from 13 July, CapitaLand said.
Slated to complete in 2023, it will be the tallest residential development in the Outram district of Singapore at 178 metres above sea-level. 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units will be priced below S$2 million ($1.47 million), said Lisa Lam, head of marketing and sales for CapitaLand Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The price for a studio apartment will start from S$970,000. Read more>>
Shangri-La Planning 5 New Hotels in India
Hong Kong-based multinational hospitality group Shangri-La is planning to set up five new hotel and resort properties in India. The group is in talks with multiple property owners, said John Northen, executive vice-president, middle-east, India and Indian ocean for Shangri-La Group.
Shangri-La, which currently has two properties in India, is eyeing locations in Mumbai, Kolkata, Goa and Rajasthan, among others. Read more>>
Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
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