Link REIT Pulls Out of UK Retail Investment and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Asia’s largest real estate investment trust leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines today with the news that the Hong Kong-listed REIT has withdrawn from talks to back a cash-strapped UK shopping centre owner’s £1 billion emergency equity raise.

In other news around the region, home rentals are slipping as the coronavirus outbreak squeezes one Asian financial centre’s housing market, while WuFlu forces a major US hotel group to close 130 of its hotels across mainland China.

Elsewhere, a pair of North American private equity giants splurge on India.

Link REIT Pulls Out of £1B Intu Rescue Talks

Intu Properties was dealt another blow on Tuesday after a Hong Kong-based investor pulled out of plans to take part in the shopping centre group’s emergency cash call – a day after it had confirmed talks.

The debt-laden company behind malls including the Trafford Centre in Manchester and Lakeside in Essex said it had been informed by Link Real Estate Investment Trust “of its intention to no longer participate in a recapitalisation of the company”. Read more>>

Hilton Closes 150 Hotels in China Due to WuFlu

Hilton has closed 150 hotel rooms in China due to the coronavirus, its CEO said Monday. 

The hotels total roughly 33,000 rooms, CEO Christopher Nassetta said on the company’s post-earnings conference call. Assuming that the outbreak lasts three to six months, with an additional three to six month recovery period, Hilton expects a $25 million to $50 million hit on full-year adjusted EBIDTA, he said Read more>>

Rents Slide as Coronavirus Hits Hong Kong Home Rentals

Hong Kong’s biggest health crisis in decades is pushing the city’s home rentals further down a slippery slope, making it firmly a tenant’s market since prices began retreating from an all-time high in August amid social unrest.

The latest transaction records in early February for some housing estates such as Sha Tin, Hung Hom, Whampoa Garden and Tseung Kwan O indicate prices have softened by more than 10 per cent from the start of the year, analysts said. Without any mitigating force, they could drop by 10 to 15 per cent by year end. Read more>>

Brookfield Overtakes Blackstone as Largest Private Investor in India

Canadian alternative asset manager Brookfield Asset Management trumped US private equity firm Blackstone to emerge as the largest private capital investor in India in 2019, lifted by deals with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).

Investments by Brookfield totalled nearly $6.28 billion last year across private equity and real estate, far outpacing the $2.38 billion in investments by Blackstone, according to deals tracker Venture Intelligence. Read more>>

Singapore Developer Takes 49% Stake in Tokyo Retail Centre

Singapore-listed property group Roxy-Pacific Holdings has taken a 49 percent stake in a retail building in Tokyo, it disclosed in a bourse filing on Tuesday.

Roxy-Pacific made the purchase through an injection of roughly $10 million in investment company Vivel SG, which paid JPY 5.2 billion ($47 million) for the building at 23-10 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-Ku. Read more>>

Asia Pacific Private Equity Funds Lag US, European Counterparts

Private equity funds in China and other emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region need to consistently deliver substantial net cash distributions to investors to catch up with rivals in North America and Europe, according to a new report by financial services software provider eFront.

In its research, eFront, which is owned by BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, found that private equity funds in China, India, Indonesia and Singapore have matured much more slowly than funds in developed markets. Read more>>

Lendlease Global Commercial REIT Outperforms Forecasts

In its inaugural unaudited financial results for the reporting period since its listing in October last year to Dec 31, Lendlease Global Commercial REIT (LREIT) outperformed its IPO forecast with a DPU of S$0.0129 ($0.0093), which is 3.1 percent higher than the forecast DPU of S$0.0125.

Distributable income to unitholders of S$15 million is 2.4 percent higher than the forecast, and was attributed to higher net property income and lower finance costs. Read more>>

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