Chinese Estates Builds HK$27B Evergrande Stake and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Joseph Lau’s Chinese Estates got some good news this week as the developer’s stake in China Evergrande now is worth more than its own Hong Kong market cap. Also in the headlines, China’s suppression of housing demand means that sales of new homes fell last month for the first time in tw and a half years, and Vietnamese buyers are now joining the flood of foreign investment into Australian real estate assets. Read on for all these stories and more.

Chinese Estates Builds HK$27B Evergrande Stake

Chinese Estates, a Hong Kong property developer, said on Thursday it has spent HK$12 billion in the past six months building a 6.2 per cent stake in China Evergrande, as the latter’s stock quadrupled in the same period.

At the same time, Chan Hoi-wan, an executive director of Chinese Estates and the wife of former chairman Joseph Lau, had informed the company she personally held 100 million shares in Evergrande as of noon of Thursday, according to a filing to the stock exchange. Read more>>

China Property Sales Fall for First Time in 30 Months

Property sales in China dropped for the first time in more than two-and-half years in September and housing starts slowed sharply, reinforcing expectations that robust growth in the world’s second-largest economy is starting to cool.

Real estate, which directly affects 40 other business sectors in China, is a crucial driver for the economy but also poses a major risk as Beijing looks to tame soaring home prices without triggering a crash or a sharp drop in construction activity. Read more>>

CapitaLand Commercial Trust Distributions Up 2.6%

CapitaLand Commercial Trust’s (CCT) net property income rose in the third quarter ended Sept 30,2017 compared to the same year-ago period, largely due to lower operating expenses, such as property tax, which saw its distribution per unit (DPU) rise 2.6 per cent to 2.36 Singapore cents.

Distributable income rose 7 per cent to S$73.11 million, from S$68.3 million the year before. Read more>>

Shareholders Throw Shade on CDL Buyout Bid for Millennium and Copthorne

Board directors at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C) PLC (MLC.L) defended their decision to back a takeover offer valuing the firm at 1.8 billion-pounds ($2.4 billion) from the London-listed company’s majority shareholder, after other investors criticized the deal.

The independent non-executive directors of the FTSE 250 hotelier said on Thursday that they had “taken into account both the potential growth and the risks inherent in the continued execution of M&C’s strategy, as well as the underlying assets of M&C” when deciding to back the bid from City Developments Limited (CDL). Read more>>

IHG Launches Healthy Hotel Brand in China

Hotel giant InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has launched a new hotel brand in China that aims to help travellers “keep healthy” while they are on the road.

The debut of the EVEN hotel brand comes at a time when young, middle-class Chinese consumers are increasingly placing an importance on health and willing to spend more on healthy low-calorie food and staying fit. The brand had its start in the US. Read more>>

Even the Vietnamese Are Buying Up Aussie Property

A private Vietnamese group has swooped on an office building in the NSW city of Wollongong that was sold by a fund managed by the listed Folkestone for $46.1 million.

The offshore group snapped up the six level A-Grade complex, known as Corporate Square, at 43 Burelli Street, after a campaign that drew strong local and offshore interest. Read more>>

Real Estate Boom Ensure Smooth Sailing for Xi

Ocean Flower Island is a vision of luxury, Chinese-style. A man-made archipelago off the coast of the tropical island of Hainan in the South China Sea, it will boast thousands of apartments, 28 museums and 58 hotels including one which is “7-star level” and another shaped like a European castle.

Gold-painted Mercedes golf carts whisk potential customers to the sales centre for the project, where Chinese developer Evergrande Real Estate is leading construction. Inside the centre, Mr Yu, a 56-year-old owner of a building company who asked not to use his full name, wears a shirt emblazoned with the words “Beverly Hills Polo” and sips green tea. Read more>>

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