China’s Wanda Selling Luxury Yacht Maker at Half-Off and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda is said to be selling yacht maker Sunseeker at a deep discount, with that report leading today’s headline roundup. Also making the list, two Japan REITs complete disposals of Tokyo properties and Global Switch explores the sale of its UK data centre business.

China’s Wanda Selling Sunseeker Yachts at Half-Off Acquisition Price

An entity affiliated with Dalian Wanda Group is selling a yacht maker whose boats were featured in James Bond movies to Lionheart Capital and Orienta Capital Partners for about £160 million ($206 million), roughly half of what the Chinese conglomerate paid more than a decade ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

The transaction involving yacht maker Sunseeker International has obtained regulatory approvals, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The sale was announced Thursday in a statement that didn’t disclose the terms. Read more>>

Nippon REIT Completes $23M Sale of Tokyo Apartment Block

Nippon REIT announced to the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday that it has completed the sale of its Field Avenue residential property in Tokyo to Cosmos Initia at a price of JPY 3.49 billion ($23 million).

The property is one of a set of assets which the trust sponsored by SBI Financial Services agreed in September to sell to a variety of purchasers for a total of over JPY 43 billion. Read more>>

Ichigo Office REIT Completes Sale of Tokyo Property

Tokyo-listed Ichigo Office REIT announced on Thursday that it has completed the sale of Ichigo Kudan 2 Chome Building in Tokyo’s central Chiyoda ward for JPY 2.1 billion ($14 million).

The seven-storey building is part of a pair of assets that the trust sponsored by Ichigo Asset Management agreed to sell in April of this year. Read more>>

Global Switch Exploring $2B Sale of UK Data Centre Business

Global Switch Holdings is exploring the sale of a majority stake in its UK business, which could be valued at £1.5 billion ($1.95 billion) in a deal, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The data centre operator is working with UBS Group for the potential stake sale that could bring in new capital for business expansion, the people said. They are targeting mostly financial investors for the deal, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Read more>>

China Home Sales Rise for the First Time in 2024

China’s residential property sales rose in October, the first year-on-year increase of 2024, as the government’s latest stimulus blitz brought back buyers.

The value of new-home sales from the 100 biggest real estate companies rose 7.1 percent from a year earlier to RMB 435.5 billion ($61.2 billion), reversing a 37.7 percent slump in September, according to preliminary data from China Real Estate Information Corp. Sales surged 73 percent from a month earlier. Read more>>

Hong Kong Negative-Equity Homeowners Grow to Record Levels 

Hong Kong’s mortgage borrowers find themselves in increasingly dire straits, as the worth of their property is falling faster than the value of their loans, according to the latest data released by the city’s monetary authority.

The number of negative-equity cases soared to 40,713 at the end of September, a jump of 34 percent from 30,288 cases at the end of June, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. It was the highest number of cases in 21 years, since the fourth quarter of 2003, when cases hit 67,575. Read more>>

Hong Kong Real Estate Crisis Spreading to Banks: S&P

Hong Kong’s commercial real estate sector is working through its worst downturn since the Asian financial crisis. S&P Global Ratings expects the sharpest pain to be felt by lower-tier or financially aggressive property firms, and the small banks most exposed to these entities.

Recent data speak to the scale of the downturn. Hong Kong’s Grade A office property values have dropped by 40 percent from the peak in 2018. Headcount among the regional headquarters of multinational firms in the city is down about one-third to roughly 132,000 as of the end of 2023. Retail rents have slipped 13 percent from the pre-pandemic era. Read more>>

Hong Kong Economy Grows at Weakest Pace in Five Quarters

Hong Kong’s economy slowed to the weakest pace in five quarters on weakened exports and spending, underscoring external and domestic challenges facing the Asian finance hub.

The city’s GDP expanded 1.8 percent in the three months ended September from the same period last year, according to advance estimates from the government Thursday. That’s lower than estimates by all but one of 13 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and down from the prior quarter, which was revised down to a 3.2 percent expansion. Read more>>

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