Battling business kingpins lead Mingtiandi’s collection of news headlines from around the region, with Amazon boss Jeff Bezos winning an interim judgement that blocks a potential deal for India’s Reliance Retail.
Also in the news, mainland China data centre operator GDS Systems is headed for a $1.7 billion IPO in Hong Kong, and CapitaLand opens a smart city lab in Singapore.
Reliance Retail India Deal on Hold Amid Amazon Court Battle
Amazon.com Inc on Sunday won an interim order against its partner Future Group selling its retail business to Reliance Industries Ltd for $3.3 billion after a Singapore-based single-judge arbitration panel put the deal on hold.
Amazon, which had agreed to purchase 49 percent of one of Future’s unlisted firms last year with the right to buy into flagship Future Retail Ltd after a period of three to 10 years, had dragged Future to arbitration after the indebted Kishore Biyani group firm signed a pact to sell retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing units to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance. Read more>>
GDS Poised to Raise $1.7B in Hong Kong Listing
Data centre company GDS Holdings has raised HK$12.9 billion ($1.7 billion) in its Hong Kong second listing, following in the steps of other US-listed Chinese firms in seeking a trading foothold closer to home.
The Shanghai-based firm priced shares at HK$80.88 each, according to terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg News. That represents a 3 percent discount to the closing price Monday of its NASDAQ-listed American depositary shares, at $86.04 apiece. One ADS represents 8 ordinary shares. GDS sold 160 million shares in its Hong Kong listing and had set a maximum price of HK$86 apiece. Read more>>
Tata in Talks to Buy Majority Stake in Online Grocer for $1B
Indian online grocery startup BigBasket is in advanced talks to sell a majority stake for about $1 billion to salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, the Economic Times reported on Wednesday, citing three sources familiar with the matter.
The century-old group has been planning to launch a “super app”, one that will tie in all its consumer businesses, several media reports have said, as it competes against Amazon and Reliance Industries, who have made big bets on India’s booming e-commerce market. Read more>>
Las Vegas Sands Likely to Go All Asian After REIT Deal
Any agreement by Las Vegas Sands to sell its Vegas assets would likely include a real estate investment trust (REIT), allowing it to maintain a US presence while focusing its financial energies on the more lucrative Asian jurisdictions of Macau and Singapore, experts speculate.
As per a Bloomberg report early Tuesday, LVS has confirmed that it is in early talks over a possible sale of its Las Vegas Strip properties — The Venetian Las Vegas, the Palazzo and Sands Expo Convention Center — with valuation estimated at around $6 billion. Read more>>
CapitaLand Opens Smart City Development Lab in SG
A new lab has opened in Singapore with the aim to drive the development and deployment of smart cities applications in the island-state. Backed by an investment of up to S$10 million ($7.36 million) over three years, the Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab already has garnered the support of 30 global industry players, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Schneider Electric.
The research and development facility would help bring together players across the ecosystem, such as local tech startups, systems integrators and international enterprises, to “co-create solutions for smart cities, from ideation to testing to commercialisation”. Launched Wednesday, the smart urban development lab is led by real estate group CapitaLand and supported by government agencies Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Enterprise Singapore. Read more>>
Tian Teck Founder’s Singapore Bungalow to Hit the Market
A rare bungalow in one of Singapore’s prime districts will soon be on the market — a two-storey building at 5 Oxley Rise which sits on a 117,230 square foot (10,891 square metre) plot and is surrounded by lush greenery.
The property belongs to the sons of the late tycoon Cheung Eak Chong, who founded real estate firms Hong Fok Corporation and Tian Teck Group, known for developing properties such as International Plaza and The Concourse in Singapore. Read more>>
Frasers Trust Completes Buyout of Singapore Retail Fund
Frasers Centrepoint Trust (FCT) now wholly owns AsiaRetail Fund (ARF), having completed the purchase of the latter’s remaining 63.11 percent interest from Frasers Property.
Separately, for Frasers Property’s proposed acquisition of Bedok Point mall from FCT, the property developer on Tuesday night announced that all the conditions precedent have been fulfilled. Read more>>
HK Govt May Have to Step Up Land Sales After Failed Auctions
Hong Kong’s government, which depends on land sales for up to a fifth of its annual fiscal revenue, may have to put more plots on the market to fill its coffers amid the city’s worst recession, after two failed auctions in October and May.
A site in Tung Chung near Hong Kong’s airport and Disney’s resort was withdrawn from tender after the biggest commercial plot to go on the market garnered a lukewarm response, depriving the government of HK$5.68 billion ($730 million). In May, the government lost out on HK
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