Fortress Closes in on $1.4B Japanese Retail Buy and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, the parent of 7-Eleven plans to sell its Sogo & Seibu department store holdings to a US fund, CapitaLand Investment announces the sale of a Malaysia mall, and S&P downgrades Country Garden and withdraws the Chinese developer’s ratings.

US Fund Manager Fortress Said Close to $1.4B Buy of Sogo & Seibu

Japanese 7-Eleven operator Seven & i Holdings is set to sell off its struggling Sogo & Seibu department store chains to US-based investment fund Fortress Investment Group for JPY 200 billion ($1.38 billion) or more, Nikkei has learned.

Together with Fortress, Japanese home appliance store operator Yodobashi Holdings is expected to invest in the deal by buying some of the Sogo & Seibu sites and rerouting proceeds to the US fund. Yobobashi also plans to open its outlets in some of the Sogo & Seibu stores in Tokyo and neighbouring Chiba prefecture. Read more>>

CapitaLand Investment Selling Penang Mall to Malaysia Trust for $210M

CapitaLand Investment is selling its 91.8 percent stake by total strata floor area of retail space in Penang’s Queensbay Mall for MYR 990.5 million ($210.7 million) to CapitaLand Malaysia Trust, according to a bourse filing on Wednesday night.

The price represents a premium of 3.8 percent to CapitaLand Investment’s valuation of the mall in December 2021. Read more>>

S&P Downgrades Country Garden, Ratings Withdrawn

Country Garden was downgraded to B+ from B by S&P Global Ratings, reflecting “narrowing funding channels” for the developer. S&P then withdrew its ratings for Country Garden upon the developer’s request.

Given the weak market sentiment for property developers, S&P said Country Garden will need to “rely heavily on internal resources” to pay its upcoming bond maturities, hurting its RMB 77 billion ($10.6 billion) cash buffers. Read more>>

South Korea Unveils $7.3B in Financing for Property Market

South Korea has rolled out fresh measures to help its struggling real estate market after a decline in home prices worsened recently.

The government will have state-owned enterprises guarantee additional project financings of KRW 10 trillion ($7.3 billion) “to curb excessive contraction of housing projects”, according to a joint statement from several ministries on Thursday. Read more>>

China Property Crisis Threatens $1.6T in Local State Debt

China’s deepening property crisis is piling pressure on a $1.6 trillion corner of the country’s onshore bond market, as cities and local administrations step in as white knights to bail out troubled developers in a state-backed bid to aid the sector.

After replacing builders as the biggest buyers of land earlier this year, the nation’s so-called local government financing vehicles have now become the main purchasers of half-finished projects of defaulters, including China Evergrande. Their increasing involvement in real estate has analysts raising red flags. Read more>>

Genting Singapore Net Profit More Than Doubles on Travel Recovery

Genting Singapore on Thursday reported a more than 100 percent increase in net profit for its third quarter, on the back of stronger gaming and non-gaming revenue.

Net profit for the three months ended 30 September rose to S$135.8 million (now $96.8 million) from S$60.7 million in the same period a year ago, the operator of Resorts World Sentosa said in a business update filed with the Singapore Exchange. Read more>>

PropNex Q3 Net Profit Rises 21.9% on Higher Revenue

Singapore-listed real estate agency PropNex on Wednesday reported a 21.9 percent increase in net profit for the third quarter on the back of higher revenue.

Net profit for the three months ending 30 September rose to S$17.6 million (now $12.5 million) from S$14.4 million in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 10.2 percent to S$258.4 million. Read more>>

Prime Residential Property in APAC Now a Buyer’s Market: Knight Frank

As prices fall in line with current monetary policy, conditions will remain uneven in the short term, with the prime residential property in Asia Pacific now a buyer’s market, said Christine Li, head of research for APAC at Knight Frank.

Li’s comments came after Knight Frank published the latest Prime Global Cities Index on Thursday, reporting that 19 out of 45 cities saw prime prices decline in the third quarter. Read more>>

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