Kim Tae-hyun, chairman and CEO of South Korea’s National Pension Service
Korean investment giants Mirae and NPS are taking offers from four potential buyers for a hotel south of Seoul, with that story leading today’s headline roundup. Also making the list, Bain Capital leads the race to buy assets from Japan’s Seven & I Holdings and Chinese developer Shimao wins creditor backing to restructure $11 billion in offshore debt.
JR AMC, BlueCove Said in Bidding for $70M Greater Seoul Hotel
The sale of Shilla Stay Dongtan, a premium business hotel operated by South Korea’s Hotel Shilla Co, has attracted four bidders, underscoring the property’s strong demand despite its location outside the prime districts of Seoul.
According to investment banking sources, the four potential buyers are J-R AMC Co, more commonly known as JR Asset Management; BlueCove Investment Co; and two unidentified asset managers. The sale price of the hotel, jointly owned by Mirae Asset Global Investments and South Korea’s National Pension Service, is estimated at KRW 100 billion ($70 million), people familiar with the matter said. Read more>>
Bain Capital Seen as Preferred Bidder for Japan’s Seven & I
Seven & I Holdings plans to select Bain Capital as the preferred bidder for a stake in an intermediate company that runs the Japanese retail group’s supermarket and other operations, it was learned Saturday.
Boston-based Bain is believed to have offered more than JPY 700 billion ($4.7 billion) for the corporate value of York Holdings, which owns supermarket chain Ito-Yokado and other units. Read more>>
Shimao Wins Creditor Backing for $11B Debt Restructuring
Chinese developer Shimao Group has secured creditor backing to restructure $11 billion in offshore debt, the latest such deal in the sector after years of liquidity troubles.
Sunac China became the first troubled Chinese builder to successfully reduce its onshore debt earlier this year, while CIFI Holdings has reached an agreement with a key group of bondholders on an offshore debt restructuring plan. Read more>>
Microsoft Said Cancelling Data Centre Leases
Is Microsoft starting to have doubts about artificial intelligence demand?
A research note written by TD Cowen analysts says Microsoft has cancelled leases in the US with at least two private data centre operators totalling a couple hundred megawatts and is not converting so-called statements of qualifications into leases. The analysts also say Microsoft has reallocated a considerable portion of its international spending to the US. Read more>>
India’s Sify Breaks Ground on Lucknow Data Centre
Sify Infinit Spaces has broken ground on a data centre in Lucknow, India. A subsidiary of Sify Technologies, the company said its facility will be built in four phases with Phase I becoming operational in June 2025.
The data centre is located in the HCL IT city campus on Sultanpur Road, but other specifications and details have not been shared. The site is likely part of Sify’s previously announced plan to build smaller Edge AI inference facilities across 20 secondary markets in India. Read more>>
Singapore Property Agencies Set to Merge
Real estate consultancy ETC and property agency OrangeTee Group will merge to form a new entity, the two Singaporean companies announced Monday.
The group aims to be the region’s “most comprehensive real estate company”, offering end-to-end real estate brokerage and consultancy services, it said. Its target client group will include individual buyers, high-net-worth investors, developers and corporations. Read more>>
Chinese Developers Paying Premiums for Sites Again
Chinese state-backed developers are starting to buy land at a premium again after the government eased limits on home prices to revive a slumping market that’s been a drag on the economy for more than four years.
The number of land parcels that sold for at least 20 percent above the asking price accounted for 37 percent of deals this year, according to a Bloomberg analysis of transactions worth at least RMB 1 billion ($138 million) tracked by China Index Academy. That compares with just 14 percent for all of last year and 4.6 percent in 2023. Read more>>
Exodus of Foreign Companies Weighs on China Office Market
Downward pressure on China’s office property market is likely to persist this year, while an exodus of foreign companies due to rising tensions between the world’s two largest economies further complicates the outlook.
US law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton this week became one of the latest companies to pull out of China, saying that it would close its office in Fortune Financial Center in Beijing’s bustling central business district in July. Read more>>
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