Amazon Loses Battle With India Retail Partner and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of news headlines from around Asia, Amazon loses its bid to block a deal involving a business partner in India, heavily indebted China Evergrande reportedly secures a financial lifeline from state-linked companies, and ESR’s South Korean REIT readies a $321 million initial public offering.

Amazon Loses Battle With India Retail Partner

India’s antitrust body on Friday cleared oil-to-telecom giant Reliance Industries’ bid to buy Future Group’s retail assets even as Amazon.com sought to block the potential deal, alleging contractual violations by the latter.

The approval by the Competition Commission of India is a setback for US giant Amazon, which has argued that a 2019 agreement it inked with Future prevented the Indian group from selling its retail assets to certain parties, including Reliance — led by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani. Read more>>

Evergrande Gets $4.6B From State Firms as Debt Fears Ease

China Evergrande Group took two more steps towards restoring confidence in its finances, securing a $4.6 billion investment from state-linked companies and lining up 23 cornerstone investors for the spinoff of its property services arm.

Companies backed by city governments in Guangdong province — Evergrande’s home base — will buy equity worth RMB 30 billion ($4.6 billion) from existing investors in Hengda Real Estate, a unit that holds Evergrande’s main property assets in China, a person familiar with the matter said over the weekend, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Read more>>

ESR Korean REIT Gears Up for $321M IPO

A new South Korean real estate investment trust, indirectly controlled by Hong Kong-listed real estate platform ESR, said Monday that it was gearing up for an initial public offering that would raise KRW 357.3 billion ($321.3 million) before a listing on the main stock bourse, the Kospi, to attract retail investors to its industrial portfolio.

The new REIT, dubbed ESR Kendall Square REIT, will become the first listed REIT dedicated to logistics properties in Korea if the IPO goes ahead as planned later this year. Korea is home to 12 REITs trading on the Kospi, according to the Land Ministry. Read more>>

Sabana REIT Rejects Meeting Requested by Activist Investors

The manager of Sabana Shari’ah Compliant Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (Sabana REIT) said it will not be convening the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) requisitioned by Quarz Capital and Black Crane Capital.

In a bourse filing on Nov 22, Sabana Reit said tit had “carefully considered” the requisition notice it received from the fund managers regarding five resolutions that the latter proposed for investors to vote on, and “strongly” urged unitholders to “focus on the merits of the (proposed) merger and the (trust scheme of arrangement)”. Read more>>

New World Unveils Plans for HK$20B Airport Retail Project

New World Development on Monday unveiled its HK$20 billion ($2.58 billion) mixed-use development project right next to Hong Kong International Airport. Called 11 Skies, the brand-new landmark will be the city’s largest hub for retail, dining and entertainment and the first to combine wealth management and wellness services.

To be managed by mall operator K11, the complex has a gross floor area of 3.8 million square feet (353,032 square metres), including 2.66 million square feet for dining and retail outlets, 570,000 square feet for entertainment facilities, and 570,000 square feet for Grade A office space. It will house more than 800 shops, including over 120 dining concepts. Read more>>

One-Third of Singaporeans Struggle to Pay Mortgages Amid Pandemic

COVID-19 has put a strain on Singaporeans’ financial health, impacting their ability to pay their housing loans and dragging down their passive income, according to the latest survey by OCBC.

The OCBC Financial Wellness Index, which launched in 2019, has dipped to 61 this year, down from 63, on the back of the pandemic fallout and the resulting global economic slowdown. Read more>>

Singapore’s Oxley Gives Update on Lawsuits Over Failed Deals

Oxley Holdings has provided further information on lawsuits involving four of its entities, in an exchange filing on Monday afternoon. This follows a commentary by The Business Times earlier this month in relation to Oxley’s disclosure practices.

In relation to a claim against its wholly-owned subsidiary Oxley Gem by Gracious Land, Oxley said Oxley Gem had in January 2019 accepted a letter of intent from Gracious Land for the purchase of the Novotel and Mercure hotels at Stevens Road for S$950 million ($708 million). Gracious Land also paid a S$9.5 million deposit. Read more>>

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