New World Nears $11B Refinancing Deal and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Distressed Hong Kong builder New World Development closes in on a deal to refinance $11 billion in debt, with that report leading today’s headline roundup. Also making the list, the wife of Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin draws scrutiny for her London home purchases and Ivanhoe Cambridge rebrands as La Caisse.

Hong Kong’s New World Closes in on Deal to Refinance $11B in Debt

New World Development, one of Hong Kong’s most indebted builders, is close to securing a crucial HK$87.5 billion ($11.1 billion) loan refinancing deal, according to people familiar with the matter, the culmination of months of negotiations as it raced to secure a lifeline amid a deepening liquidity crisis.

New World has received preliminary consent from all the lenders for the refinancing deal, even from those that had previously resisted, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters. A few of the banks are still working on formal written commitments, the people added. Read more>>

Evergrande Founder’s Ex-Wife Bought 33 London Homes After Bond Default 

The ex-wife of China Evergrande’s chairman spent millions on luxury apartments in London, nine months after the developer defaulted on its loans.

While a court document in January unveiled her ownership of 33 units at the high-end residential development Thames City, it didn’t include the timing of the purchase. The properties worth £49.8 million ($67 million) were acquired in September 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on UK land registry filings. That’s almost a year after Chinese authorities asked Evergrande chairman Xu Jiayin to pay debt with his personal wealth. Read more>>

Ivanhoe Cambridge Rebrands as La Caisse

Quebec’s largest pension fund manager is rebranding its revamped real estate arm, dropping the names of subsidiaries Ivanhoe Cambridge and Otera Capital.

Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, which manages C$473 billion ($345.5 million), has been restructuring its real estate operations since the start of 2024, bringing the operations of investor and developer Ivanhoe and commercial real estate debt provider Otera in-house. The merged real estate operations will operate under the name La Caisse, along with the rest of the pension fund manager. Read more>>

Australia’s NextDC Expands Debt Facilities by $1.4B

Australian data centre operator NextDC said Wednesday that it has raised new senior debt facilities totalling A$2.2 billion ($1.4 billion) with the support of lenders including ANZ Bank, Japan’s MUFG Bank and an Australian unit of HSBC.

The company, which has recently expanded its footprint into Japan and Malaysia, described the capital raising as an effort to “power national expansion and AI infrastructure demand”. Read more>>

AirTrunk Breaks Ground on 40MW Tokyo Expansion

AirTrunk has started the latest expansion at one of its data centre campuses in Tokyo, breaking ground on a new 40-megawatt phase at TOK1.

Announced in September 2020, the initial phase of TOK1 was delivered in 45 weeks and launched in November 2021. The company started work on the third phase, adding a 55MW building, in June 2023. Read more>>

Hong Kong’s Far East Consortium Issues Profit Warning

Hong Kong developer and investor Far East Consortium said Thursday that it expects to incur a  loss attributable to shareholders of not more than HK$1.3 billion ($170 million) for the year to the end of March.

That shortfall compares with a profit of HK$226 million for the preceding year, with the company led by tycoon David Chiu attributing the loss primarily to change in fair value of investment properties and impairment loss on properties. Read more>>

Hong Kong Homebuyers Forfeit Deposits Amid Housing Slump

Several buyers of flats at Grand Mayfair II — a high-rise residential project in Yuen Long, New Territories — have cancelled their contracts after Hong Kong’s market slump eroded home prices in the area by about a quarter since they acquired the units three years ago.

They forfeited HK$15.6 million ($2 million) in deposits on 19 flats on Tuesday to terminate their sale and purchase agreements from May 2022, according to the latest data published by developers. They added to the lone cancellation in 2022 since the project commenced in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. Read more>>

Seoul Home Prices Record Biggest Weekly Jump in Nearly 7 Years

Apartment prices in Seoul rose at the fastest pace in nearly seven years last week, fuelled by growing demand and rising asking prices in sought-after districts, official data showed Thursday.

According to the state-run Korea Real Estate Board’s weekly housing price report, Seoul apartment prices climbed by an average 0.36 percent as of Monday, marking the largest weekly increase since the second week of September 2018, when prices rose 0.45 percent. Seoul’s apartment market has been on an upward trajectory for 20 consecutive weeks since turning positive in early February, with the pace of gains accelerating in recent weeks. Read more>>

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