Blackstone Vies With ADIA for $250M India Business Park and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

At the top of the news, Blackstone is reportedly dueling with sovereign wealth fund ADIA for a $250 million business park in Mumbai, as the New York-based asset management giant looks to add to its $3 billion of investments in India. Also, the Wanda drama continues to make headlines, and Hong Kong will gets its second Travelodge next month. And in case you were worried about a housing bubble, never fear because Shanghai authorities have the market completely under control. Read on for all these stories and more.

Blackstone Vies with ADIA for Mumbai Business Park

Abu Dhabi Investment Corporation (ADIA) along with Shapoorji Pallonji is vying with Blackstone Group for a potential acquisition of Adani Realty’s first business park located near Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in a deal estimated at more than Rs 1,600 crore (around $250 million), people directly aware of the matter said.

Adani has sought bidders for the recently completed 8-lakh-sqft commercial office space Inspire BKC, which is in the midst of finalising tenants like Novartis. While Adani has sought an economic value of Rs 23,000 per sqft, the bidders have indicated preliminary offers ranging from Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000 a sqft. Read more>>

Wanda Hotel Unit Halts Trading for Potential Asset Restructuring

Dalian Wanda’s Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, Wanda Hotel Development, requested a trading halt on Wednesday for a “possible asset restructuring.” The company said trading in its stock would be halted pending the release of an announcement on asset restructuring involving a connected person of the company.

The company’s parent, Dalian Wanda Group, on Tuesday denied reports it was exploring the sale of two major property developments in Australia. Wanda is one of a group of four Chinese conglomerates that have come under the scrutiny from government regulators following an outbound deals binge. Read more>>

Travelodge To Open Second Hong Kong Hotel in Central

A consortium comprising SGX-listed ICP Ltd and a real estate private equity fund has acquired Butterfly on Hollywood, a 148-room midscale hotel primely located in the Central district of Hong Kong.

From September 2017 onwards, the hotel will be rebranded as Travelodge Central, Hollywood Road and be operated by Travelodge Hotels Asia, a wholly owned subsidiary of ICP Ltd. Read more>>

Wharf to Spin off Core Commercial Assets into Separate Listing

Wharf Holdings, one of Hong Kong’s biggest landowners, saw its shares surge 15 per cent on Wednesday after it unveiled plans to spin off its core commercial assets in the city into a separate listing.

Wharf said it was carving out six investment properties in Hong Kong with a market value of over HK$230 billion (US$29.4 billion) into a new entity named Wharf Real Estate Investment Company. They are Harbour City and Times Square – Hong Kong’s two biggest malls in shopping districts – and Plaza Hollywood, Crawford House, Wheelock House and The Murray. Read more>>

China’s Agile Group Raises $200M in Offshore Bond Sale

Chinese property developer Agile Group Holdings, rated Ba3/BB- (Moody’s/S&P), has sold US$200m of tightly priced senior notes in its first visit to the US dollar bond market in more than two years.

The five-year non-call three notes were priced at par to yield 5.125%, the bottom end of final guidance of 5.25% (+/-12.5bp), and 62.5bp in from initial guidance of 5.75% area. Read more>>

Jinmao Says Shanghai Has Strictest Home Price Controls

Shanghai’s price controls over new homes are the toughest among all mainland Chinese cities, according to state-owned property developer China Jinmao Holdings.

Government price guidance on newly launched flats is the latest measure undertaken by a number of major Chinese cities to rein in skyrocketing home prices. Builders that don’t follow the price guidance will be denied presale permits. Read more>>

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