HNA’s chief Chen Feng may have some explaining to do with China’s insurance regulator
China’s cross-border investors continue to draw regulatory ire today, as the country’s insurance regulator slaps HNA for using its insurance division as a slush fund. Also in the news, Tujia.com raises a war chest for its own international expansion, and a Singaporean developer controlled by Thailand’s richest man buys its second set of German warehouses. Read on for all these stories and more.
China Sanctions HNA for Related Party Transactions
China banned an HNA Group Co. insurance unit from conducting some financial transactions with its affiliates for six months after authorities found various regulatory violations.
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission told HNA’s Bohai Life Insurance to stop some direct and indirect transactions – including loans and financial aid – with the group and its units, the regulator said on its website late Wednesday. During on-site checks, the CIRC uncovered breaches such as the failure to report related-party transactions, untimely disclosures and a compensation system that didn’t meet regulatory requirements, it said. Read more>>
Tujia.com Raises $300M for Global Expansion Push
Airbnb’s biggest rival in China, Tujia.com, has raised $300 million to fund a rapid expansion and ride a surge in Chinese families taking holidays around the world.
Online travel giant Ctrip.com International Ltd. and All-Stars Investment Ltd. led a round that valued the company at more than $1.5 billion, it said in a statement confirming an earlier Bloomberg report. That’s up sharply from a valuation of over $1 billion when it last tapped financing in 2015. Read more>>
Frasers Centrepoint Unit Buying German Warehouses for $50M
Frasers Centrepoint’s indirect subsidiary Frasers Property Investments (Europe) has, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement to acquire three companies in Germany for 42.4 million Euros (about $50 million).
It will acquire 94.8 per cent each in Logipark Moosthenning GmbH and HJäger Ges für Projektentwicklung von Immobilien mbH, and fully acquire Simblafis GmbH. Read more>>
Spring REIT Announces EGM Following PAG Push
Hong Kong-listed Spring REIT has announced to its unit-holders that it will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting following complaints from investors in the listed trust over an apparent shift in the investment approach.
Spring REIT’s manager says that it intends to publish details of the EGM on or before 26 October. Hong Kong-based private equity real estate firm PAG had led a push to review the REIT’s investments after the Japanese-based fund manager invested $93 million into a chain of UK car service centres in July. Read more>>
WeWork Pulls Deloitte, BOA, and Mastercard into Asian Centres
US-based WeWork, the world’s largest provider of shared work spaces, has recently secured Deloitte’s Asia Pacific Blockchain Lab, a regional fintech centre with a team of 30, as a tenant in its Hong Kong co-working space.
Tenants from the finance industry include HSBC, Bank of America, Mastercard, Silicon Valley Bank, Deutsche Bank and Nasdaq, while insurance companies Manulife and FWD have taken desks in WeWork locations in Greater China, according to Christian Lee, managing director of WeWork Asia. Read more>>
Home Sharing Grows in SG Despite Government Ban
Sizing up the home-sharing industry in Singapore has become the economist’s puzzle as the aspiring “Smart Nation” grapples with resistance to next-door strangers.
Despite government rules restricting the likes of Airbnb Inc operating in Singapore, there are signs that home-sharing has become more prolific in the city state. Residents’ complaints about short-term rentals for private homes have climbed this year, while a surge in tourist arrivals isn’t being mirrored in hotel receipts, indicating more visitors may be staying in private homes. Read more>>
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