A mainland developer leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines today with the news that the company has banished the boss of its football team after a string of bad results.
In other news around the region, a US private equity giant has given a Japanese hotel group more time to decide whether it wants to sell its assets, while a cash-strapped Chinese insurer offloads a $2.1 billion stake in a bank.
Elsewhere, shops close down in Asia’s top financial hub as the economic gloom deepens.
Evergrande Sends Disgraced Coach Cannavaro to a Study Camp
The Chinese Super League’s three-way title tussle hardly needed more drama, but faltering Guangzhou Evergrande supplied that in spades on Sunday, adding even more intrigue to the season’s finale.
Sitting atop the standings, a point ahead of Shanghai SIPG with three matches to play, and two ahead of third-place Beijing Guo’an, Evergrande sensationally relieved Fabio Cannavaro of his head coach duties following Sunday’s 2-2 draw at home to Henan Jianye. Read more>>
Blackstone Gives Unizo More Time to Mull Japan Hotels Offer
US buyout firm Blackstone Group said on Monday it had extended the deadline for its offer to buy hotel operator Unizo Holdings to 6 November from Monday. Blackstone said the extension was “to provide additional time” for Unizo to respond to the offer.
The firm had told Unizo it would launch a tender offer or explore other options if the Japanese hotel chain did not agree to its conditions by Monday. Read more>>
Chinese-Backed Global Switch to Open 2nd Data Centre in Frankfurt
Global Switch will be opening its second data centre in Frankfurt, Germany next month in partnership with China Telecom Global and Daily Tech, a developer and operator of data centre infrastructure across China.
The €115m Frankfurt North site will go live on Tuesday 12 November after Global Switch announced it had started construction last year. Read more>>
Anbang Sells RMB 14.7B Stake in China Merchants Bank
The state-owned company created to manage Anbang Insurance Group has continued to dispose of the insurer’s assets with the sale of a RMB 14.7 billion ($2.1 billion) stake in China Merchants Bank.
Over the past two months, Dajia Insurance Group has sold off Anbang Property & Casualty Insurance’s entire stake in the bank, according to a statement. Read more>>
Wanda to Open 5 Hospitals in Partnership with US Medical Group
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Wanda Group has broken ground on the first of at least five private hospitals they will operate in China, in what UPMC calls the largest presence of American academic medicine outside of the US.
The medical center plans to open the hospitals in five major Chinese cities in partnership with Wanda. The first, in Chengdu, is expected to open in 2022. Read more>>
China Evergrande’s First Hong Kong Flats Sell Out
China Evergrande’s first project in Hong Kong got off to a flying start, as investors were attracted by the relatively low prices and an easing of mortgage rules, upstaging rivals that saw relatively modest sales last week.
The mainland developer sold all 167 flats on offer at its Emerald Bay project in protest-hit Tuen Mon, which has a total of 1,982 units, including 22 villas. Read more>>
Hong Kong Shops Shutter as Economy Worsens
Hong Kong jeweler Jun Lam has already closed one shop. His remaining outlet sits in an almost deserted shopping mall at the heart of a district regularly hit by sometimes violent protests that have rocked the Chinese-ruled city since June.
Restaurants, hotels and retail outlets like Lam’s, many of which cater to mostly mainland Chinese tourists, form a central pillar of a small business sector that employs more than one million people in the city. Read more>>
Japan Office Vacancy Under 1% In Major Cities
Office vacancy in Tokyo was unchanged at 0.7 percent in the third quarter, according to CBRE.
In Osaka, the vacancy rate stood at 0.9 percent for the quarter, while vacancy in Nagoya was unchanged at 0.9 percent. 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.
Leave a Reply