Sumitomo Corp president and CEO Masayuki Hyodo
Japanese giant Sumitomo makes a big addition to its collection of Australian homebuilders, with that story leading today’s headline roundup. Also making the list, Singapore home prices fall for the first time in five quarters and a Korean retailer delists its construction arm.
Sumitomo Forestry Buys Controlling Stake in Australia’s Metricon
Sumitomo Forestry has bought a majority stake in Australia’s largest homebuilder, Metricon, in a deal that values the company at A$230 million ($159 million) and paves the way for the Japanese giant to take full control in coming years.
The Japanese company has taken a 51 percent stake in the company for A$115 million, adding to a local homebuilding empire that includes Henley Homes, Edgewater Homes, Scott Park and Wisdom. Read more>>
Singapore Home Prices Slipped in Q3 for First Time Since Mid-2023
Prices of private homes in Singapore fell for the first time since the second quarter of 2023, slipping 1.1 percent in the third quarter of this year.
Residential prices fell the most in the landed property segment, where home prices dropped 3.8 percent, and in the prime Core Central Region, where prices fell 1.5 percent. The Q3 drop in private housing prices came after prices crept up 0.9 percent in Q2, according to flash estimates released Tuesday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Read more>>
Korea’s E-Mart to Delist Troubled Construction Unit in $30M Deal
South Korea’s largest supermarket chain, E-Mart, said Monday that it was set to delist its troubled construction subsidiary from the main local stock market after a KRW 38.8 billion ($29.7 million) tender offer, sending the company’s share price to a four-month high.
E-Mart said in a regulatory filing that its board of directors on Friday decided to buy a 27.33 percent stake in Shinsegae Engineering & Construction, or 2.12 million ordinary shares at KRW 18,300 each, representing a 19 percent premium to the company’s last closing price. Shinhan Securities is managing the tender offer. Read more>>
Data Centre Operator Yondr Said Looking to Exit $1B India JV
Yondr is reportedly looking to sell its stake in its Indian data centre joint venture. Mint reports that the company is planning to exit its EverYondr joint venture with private equity firm Everstone Group. Everstone has reportedly begun talks to buy out Yondr’s stake.
“Yondr Group is exiting its stake in the JV and exiting the platform. Everstone Group wants to acquire this stake, with the negotiations ongoing,” a source told the publication. Read more>>
China Housing Sales Fell 38% in September
China’s residential slump deepened in September before the government released a basket of measures to put a floor under the years-long property crisis.
The value of new-home sales from the 100 biggest real estate companies fell 37.7 percent from a year earlier to RMB 251.7 billion ($35.8 billion), faster than the 26.8 percent decline in August, according to preliminary data from China Real Estate Information. Transactions gained 0.2 percent from August. Read more>>
Beijing Joins Other Top Chinese Cities in Lowering Housing Sales Curbs
The city of Beijing became the latest of China’s four so-called Tier 1 cities to ease rules for homebuyers, following through on the central government’s call to put a floor under the property market decline.
The Chinese capital is easing its rules to allow non-residents to purchase homes in core residential areas within the fifth ring road when they have paid a minimum three years of social insurance or personal income tax, instead of the current threshold of five years, according to a statement from the municipal housing commission. Read more>>
Microsoft Signs AI Partnership With Korea’s KT Corp
Korean telecom provider KT Corp and Microsoft have agreed a multibillion-dollar five-year artificial intelligence partnership. The deal will see KT provide $450 million worth of network and data centre infrastructure to Microsoft over the next 15 years.
Signed on 19 September, the agreement will also see KT invest in AI, cloud technologies, and IT business, along with a resource commitment from Microsoft in terms of people and infrastructure. Read more>>
Indonesia to Build Three New National Data Centres
The Indonesian government is embarking on a major digital infrastructure project with the construction of three new national data centres.
The first facility is being built in Bekasi, West Java, and is expected to be operational by 2026. The government is currently selecting supervisory consultants for a second in Batam, Riau Islands. Additionally, authorities are exploring potential construction sites for a third in the new capital city, Nusantara. Read more>>
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