Korea’s NPS is throwing in with Blackstone
Blackstone is back in the news today as a story about the US private equity giant winning a $500 million investment from Korea’s National Pension Service leads today’s collection of headlines from around the region.
Also in today’s updates, CK Asset says its net profit dropped by nearly a third in 2020, Amazon is set to power its Singapore data centres from the sun and Malaysia’s Guoco Group is ready to privatise its hotel unit.
Korea’s NPS Commits $500M to Blackstone Life Science Property Fund
Korea’s National Pension Service has committed $500 million to Blackstone’s new life science real estate fund that is expected to raise over $12 billion, according to investment banking sources on Mar. 16.
The NPS’ commitment to Blackstone’s Life Science Office Real Estate Perpetual Fund marks the South Korean pension fund’s first investment in a vehicle targeting life science properties. Read more>>
CK Asset Reports 32.5% Drop in Profit for 2020
CK Asset, Hong Kong’s second biggest property developer by market capitalisation, reported a 32.5 per cent decline in underlying profit to HK$19.34 billion last year.
Revenue from recognised property sales last year plunged 39.7 per cent to HK$38.67 billion. In particular, sales in Hong Kong sank 82.1 per cent to HK$8.94 billion. The pandemic saw the city’s economy, from where CK Asset derived 22.6 per cent of its revenue, shrink 6.1 per cent last year – the sharpest annual contraction on record. Read more>>
KIC, Other Korea Institutions Search for New Leadership
South Korea’s Police Mutual Aid Association (PMAA) has been looking for a new chief investment officer for a half year, while the sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) and the Military Mutual Aid Association (MMAA) have just kicked off their CIO selection process.
Another retirement fund Korea Scientists & Engineers Mutual-aid Association will likely join them soon to find the successor of CIO Huh Sung-moo whose two-year term is expiring next month. Read more>>
Amazon Inks Renewables Deal to Power SG Data Centres
Amazon this week announced its first renewable energy project in Singapore, which will see them buy renewable energy from Sunseap Group, a leading solar energy provider in Singapore.
As part of the long-term agreement, Amazon will export 62 megawatts (MWp) of clean energy from Sunseap’s upcoming installation awarded as part of JTC’s SolarLand project. When operational in 2022, the new installation is expected to amount to 80GWh of clean energy annually. Read more>>
Guangzhou R&F Gets 1-Year Extension for Korean Casino
The Chinese former partner of United States-based gaming brand Caesars in an Incheon, South Korea, casino scheme, has been given only a one-year postponement for opening the first phase of the venue, not the three-year delay it was seeking.
That is according to a spokesperson from South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism approached by telephone by GGRAsia on Thursday morning. Read more>>
China Credit Crackdown Helps Cool Home Prices
Housing speculators in China find themselves in the crosshairs of regulators who are forcing them to sell property bought with personal and consumer loans, as authorities look to cool a buying frenzy.
The nationwide crackdown to stem the flow of such funds into the red-hot property sector since the start of this year has proved to be effective, as home prices have started to stabilise in major cities like Shanghai. Read more>>
Guoco Bid to Privatise Hotel Unit Crosses 90% Threshold
The Guoco Group unit looking to take hotel operator GL private has amassed enough valid acceptances to cross the 90 per cent shareholding threshold for a compulsory acquisition.
As at 6pm on Thursday, offeror GuocoLeisure Holdings received valid acceptances representing about 90.71 per cent of the total number of shares in GL. Thus, it intends to exercise its right of compulsory acquisition to acquire all of GL’s shares after its S$0.80 per share offer closes at 5.30pm on April 1. When the compulsory acquisition is completed, GL will be delisted from the Singapore Exchange. Read more>>
India’s Square Yards Acquires Virtual Show Room Platform PropVR
Square Yards has acquired PropVR, an AI based platform specialising in creating immersive digital property experiences using 3D technologies, virtual reality, and augmented reality.
Founded by Srinath Kandala and Sunder Jagannathan, PropVR’s AI based platform can convert any floor plan or physical space into an interactive 3D walkthrough in minutes (as against rather weeks being standard norm) and can cut the real estate marketing spends by 80 per cent while increasing the customer engagement levels by up to 400 per cent. Read more>>
Tune in again soon for more real estate news and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
Leave a Reply