Citic Pacific Buys Hong Kong Luxury Residential Site for HK$3.2B and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

A Hong Kong residential site leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines today with the news that a Chinese state-backed conglomerate has paid $410 million for the plot in the Asian financial hub. Meanwhile, back on the mainland, a Tencent-backed online brokerage is ready to brave stormy IPO seas with hopes of $1 billion payoff.

In other news around the region, a Singapore-listed insurer has purchased an office property from its banking affiliate for $38 million, and a US co-working giant has arranged a $1.75 billion credit line.

Citic Pacific Buys Hong Kong Luxury Residential Site for HK$3.2B

Hong Kong-listed and Chinese state-backed conglomerate Citic Pacific has won a luxury residential plot in Tai Hang, southeast of Causeway Bay, for HK$3.2 billion (US$410.8 million), the city’s Lands Department said on Wednesday.

The company beat 24 other bidders for the plot, which was initially expected to go for a bid between HK$1.7 billion and HK$5.41 billion (US$218 million and US$694 million), according to market observers. Read more>>

Tencent-Backed Beike Eyes $1B IPO

Beike Zhaofang, a Chinese online property brokerage platform backed by Tencent Holdings, is considering an initial public offering that could raise at least $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

The company is working with an adviser for the potential share sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private. The listing could take place as soon as in 2020, while the company has not decided on the venue. Read more>>

UOI to buy 146 Robinson Rd from UOB for S$52M

United Overseas Insurance (UOI) plans to buy the office property located at 146 Robinson Road, also known as Overseas Union Trust Building, from United Overseas Bank (UOB) for S$52 million ($38 million), it said on Wednesday.

The property will be UOI’s first real estate investment and it intends to move its own operations into the premises. Read more>>

WeWork Arranges $1.75B Credit Line with Goldman Sachs

Shared workplace operator WeWork said on Tuesday it has arranged a $1.75 billion letter of credit with Goldman Sachs that is in the process of being syndicated and whose funds are expected to be available in January.

The credit line is part of SoftBank Group Corp’s $9.5 billion bailout that was announced in October when money-losing WeWork was on the brink of running out of cash after its plans to go public were abruptly withdrawn a month earlier. Read more>>

Best Mart 360 Shifts to Macau

Hong Kong-listed snack shop chain Best Mart 360 on Tuesday opened the first of as many as 15 stores planned for Macau, as it diversifies away from the city, where 75 out of its 102 stores have been targeted by anti-government protesters over the past seven months.

“We opened the first store today, the first of three. Now we will see how the business will fare. We have rented three stores in Macau. The goal is to see if we can open 15 [there],” Lin Tsz-fung, its chairman and co-founder, said in an exclusive interview. Read more>>

Yanlord Plans to Delist United Engineers in Buyout Offer

Chinese developer Yanlord Land Group now plans to delist United Engineers (UE) given that its stake is edging towards the critical 90 per cent mark, it said in an update.

This reverses its initial proposal at the launch of the offer exercise in October, when Yanlord’s offer vehicle said it did not intend to delist or privatise UE. Read more>>

Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.

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