At the top of the news, Fosun’s Guo Guangchang says China’s clampdown on some of the country’s biggest buyers of overseas assets is a necessary measure to deal with “irrational investment” – which presumably doesn’t include his own firm’s recent $733 million joint venture deal for a French margarine maker. Also in the headlines today, a $1.6 billion ultra-luxury hotel in Macao has missed its opening deadline, putting its financing at risk, while Hong Kong home prices are still climbing and Singaporean en bloc housing projects are flying off the shelves. Read on for all these stories and more.
Fosun Boss Praises Outbound Crackdown on Companies Like Fosun
One of China’s richest men and most active global dealmakers has given his backing to a crackdown on overseas investments, a drive which has stymied deals and brought the spotlight onto the offshore dealmaking of a number of China’s top firms.
Guo Guangchang, chairman of Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, said in a note on Saturday that tougher rules on overseas deals were “essential and timely” to root out risky investments and sort out financial “chaos”. Read more>>
Macao’s The 13 Hotel To Open Late, Jeopardising Loan
13 Holdings Ltd. missed a Monday deadline to open its luxury hotel in Macau, a condition of a HK$3 billion ($384 million) loan from Bank of Communications Co. for the gaming project just off the Cotai strip, according to people familiar with the matter.
The $1.6 billion development, started by 13 Holdings co-chairman Stephen Hung, formerly co-head of Asia investment banking at Merrill Lynch, now aims to open before the end of the year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. Read more>>
Singapore Sees En Bloc Sales Surge this Year
It’s a fever that last swept Singapore in 2011 before property cooling measures introduced in 2013 cooled it. Now, it looks like the collective-sale fever has hit again, with deals flowing fast and thick in the past two months.
Six residential developments and an industrial complex have already been sold en bloc – far exceeding the three deals done in all of 2016. The seven collective-sale transactions this year total S$2.5 billion in value, more than double last year’s S$1 billion. Read more>>
HK Home Prices Are Still Climbing (But More Slowly)
Hong Kong’s red-hot home prices extended their record-breaking run in June, although the pace of growth slowed, underscoring the challenges the city’s new leader faces in reining in prices in one of the world’s most expensive property markets.
An apartment of less than 200 square feet can cost as much as $500,000 in the former British colony, making the prospect of owning a home a distant dream for many residents. Hong Kong’s home prices edged up 0.69 percent in June from May, the smallest rise since December last year. Read more>>
Future Land Raises Mezz Loan for $657M Privatisation
The controlling shareholder of Future Land Development Holdings has raised a large mezzanine financing to privatise the Chinese property developer.
Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) is the sole lender on the mezz loan, representing about 90% of the HK$5.123bn (US$657m) payable for the privatisation. Signing of the loan took place on July 7. Read more>>
Overseas Investment Crackdown Is All about the Law, Says NDRC Think Tank
Several high profile Chinese firms may be on the receiving end of government scrutiny over their overseas acquisitions, but the authorities are not cracking down on foreign investments, a Beijing-backed think tanker said.
“The Chinese government is not discouraging overseas investment. It’s just that the government has started regulating overseas investment,” Cao Wenlian, director general of the International Cooperation Center of the National Development and Reform Commission (ICC-NDRC), told CNBC. Read more>>
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