Facebook broke ground on its first APAC data centre in in Singapore during 2019
In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, Singapore and Facebook combine forces to solve the riddle of sustainable data centres, ESR closes on its purchase of the Milestone logistics portfolio from Blackstone, and Hong Kong-listed Link REIT’s annual payout inches up despite the pandemic’s impact.
Singapore Teams With Facebook on Sustainable Data Centres
The Singapore government and Facebook are funding a $17 million project to deal with the urgent need for data centres that can be operated sustainably in tropical climates.
A Sustainable Tropical Data Centre Testbed will test novel cooling techniques at the National University of Singapore, in the hope of enabling facilities that can be operated without draining Singapore’s electrical grid. Read more>>
ESR Closes on $2.9B Purchase of Blackstone Warehouse Portfolio
ESR Australia boss Phil Pearce says the group had acquired Blackstone’s Milestone logistics portfolio at “under replacement cost” — given surging industrial land prices — after settling the record A$3.8 billion ($2.9 billion) real estate deal on Thursday.
Mr Pearce said ESR had identified almost A$1 billion of future development opportunities across the under-utilised 360 hectare (890 acre) portfolio, where just over a third of the land is occupied by industrial buildings. Read more>>
Link REIT Annual Payout Rises to HK$6B Despite Pandemic
Link REIT said the total distributable amount for the year ended 31 March inched up by 0.75 percent year-on-year to HK$6.01 billion ($770 million now), after adjustments and a discretionary distribution of HK$290 million.
Distribution per unit for the year increased by 1 percent to 289.99 HK cents. Revenue grew by 0.2 percent year-on-year to HK$10.74 billion, and net property income increased by 0.2 percent to HK$8.23 billion. Read more>>
Dash Into Hmlet as Creditors Left With Zero
Creditors will be left with nothing after the collapse of co-living operator Hmlet Australia, which entered liquidation last month leaving unpaid debts of more than A$500,000 ($379,000).
Most was owed to landlords who had signed long-term head leases with the failed operator, while hundreds of its co-living tenants across seven Sydney properties were also left in the lurch. Read more>>
Blackstone Offloads Canberra Office
Blackstone has sold an A-grade Canberra office it picked up 10 years ago through its A$207 million ($156.9 million now) takeover of Valad Property Group.
The four-level complex at 38 Sydney Avenue in the Forrest suburb is trading to Irongate Group for A$73.75 million. Read more>>
Yardi Acquires UK Visitor Management System Provider
Yardi has acquired Forge, the Bristol-based visitor management and access control software company. Forge’s Forge Bluepoint product is a cloud-based visitor management platform that allows companies to manage visitors “flexibly and securely”.
Used in 22m sq ft of property in the UK by companies ranging from Landsec to CBRE and Savills, Forge Bluepoint guides the visitor process from invitations and check-ins to arrival. Read more>>
Billionaire Suning Boss Hit by Evergrande Bond, Stock Sell-Off
Billionaire Zhang Jindong’s 30-year empire is facing a critical test as concern mounts over Suning Appliance Group’s financial health and its links to China Evergrande Group.
Evidence of liquidity issues at companies linked to Zhang is increasing. Suning Appliance’s creditors agreed to extend by two years a RMB 2.89 billion ($450 million) bond due to mature on Wednesday — a sign the company may have otherwise struggled to repay it. Read more>>
Guangdong Home Prices May Lose Momentum as Hong Kong Spikes
Home prices in the mainland Chinese cities that make up the Greater Bay Area (GBA) are poised to fall in June, as a slew of market-cooling measures by local authorities broke the five-month rising streak in residential property prices, standing in stark contrast to Hong Kong’s record-setting market, according to one of the biggest local real estate agency networks.
The Centaline Greater Bay Area Index, which tracks average home prices across the 11 GBA cities, “is expected to record a significant decline in June” after rising to a record of 126.9 in May, according to Louis Chan, Asia-Pacific vice-chairman and chief executive of the residential division at Centaline. Read more>>
Ascendas REIT Prices S$480.8M of 0.75% Notes Due in 2028
Ascendas REIT’s trustee on Wednesday priced S$480.8 million ($358.6 million) in notes due in 2028, the manager said in a bourse filing on Thursday.
The notes, which have a fixed interest rate of 0.75 percent and a reoffer yield of 0.773 percent, fall under the REIT’s S$7 billion euro medium-term securities programme. Read more>>
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