Gaw Wins Extension on Shanghai Office Loan and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Shanghai salvation leads today’s look at real estate headlines from around the region, as Gaw Capital is said to win an extension on an office debt. Also making the headlines, US investor Ares wins backing from a pair of Abu Dhabi giants to start buying stakes in smaller regional fund managers and AirTrunk is said to have put a Malaysian data centre on the market.

Gaw Wins Last Minute Extension on Shanghai Office Loan

Private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners secured an extension to a property-backed loan that was due Monday, people familiar with the matter said, after last-minute talks highlighting the enduring impact of China’s property crisis.

Lenders agreed to give Hong Kong-based Gaw an extra 18 months to repay the loan, which is backed by a life science park in Shanghai, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing private matters. Another 18-month extension will automatically kick in at the end of that time, if certain conditions are met, the people said. Because of pending regulatory approval, the extension will initially take the form of a one-year reprieve. Read more>>

Ares, ADIC, Mubadala Join Up to Invest in PE Firms

Ares Management is partnering with the Abu Dhabi Investment Council and Mubadala’s special situations unit to found a business that will take minority stakes in mid-size private equity firms.

For the new strategy, known as GP stakes, Ares will tap into its long-time relationships with more than 1,000 general partners through its direct lending business, according to Nate Walton, head of private equity secondaries. Read more>>

Blackstone Said to Begin Marketing AirTrunk Malaysia Data Centre

Private capital giant Blackstone has given its bankers the go-ahead to shop a majority stake in its Malaysian hyperscale data centre, the first of a series of widely anticipated selldowns out of the A$24 billion ($15.6 billion) business.

Street Talk understands that Blackstone has asked potential bidders to submit proposals to buy a majority stake in JHB1, a 150-megawatt asset located in Johor Bahru, the financial centre of Malaysia’s south and the country’s second-biggest city, after Kuala Lumpur. Read more>>

Alibaba Cloud Revenue Jumped 34% in Q3

Revenue for Alibaba Cloud, the online services division of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, jumped 34 percent year-on-year in the three months to the end of September to reach RMB 39.8 billion ($5.6 billion), according to a statement on Tuesday.  

Over the past four quarters, Alibaba has deployed RMB 120 billion in capital expenditure to advance AI and cloud infrastructure, the company said, with overall revenue rising 15 percent. Read more>>

CPPIB, Morgan Stanley, GIC Seen Pulling Back From Korea Residential

Global institutional investors and asset managers are moving to withdraw from South Korea’s rental housing sector, raising fears that the country’s nascent corporate rental market for young people and single-person households could stall before it fully takes shape.

Canada’s CPPIB, Morgan Stanley, Britain’s M&G and Singaporean sovereign fund GIC are among the major investors pulling back from the Korean rental housing sector, according to a report this week by the Korean Economic Daily. Read more>>

Singapore Co-Living Operator Coliwoo Reports Drop in Net Profit

Singaporean co-living operator Coliwoo reported a net profit of S$5.7 million for the second half to the end of September, a 75.1 percent drop from the year-earlier result.

Revenue for the group, which listed on the Singapore Exchange in November, came in at S$23.7 million, down 26.8 percent. Coliwoo on Tuesday said the decline was primarily due to an absence of a one-time retrofitting income from a facility services contract it had entered into last year. Read more>>

Singaporeans Sue Broker After Being Hit by Tax Bill Over Dodgy Condo Buy

A PropNex subsidiary has been sued, along with its salesperson and a law firm, over a so-called “99-1” property transaction by a couple who allege a breach of duty by the three parties.

The couple are claiming a sum of S$586,172 ($450,728), the amount in additional tax and surcharge that the taxman had asked them to pay, for having avoided paying the relevant stamp duty for their purchase of a condo unit. Read more>>

India Now Top Market for Real Estate Private Credit, Says Knight Frank

Private credit has emerged as one of the biggest forces driving India’s real estate boom. As more global and domestic investors seek alternatives to traditional investment avenues, a steady flow of private credit has opened up fresh funding routes for developers.  

A new Knight Frank study places this change at the centre of the sector’s current momentum, noting: “Private credit has become indispensable to India’s real estate sector, delivering 12 to 21 percent internal rate of return well above traditional instruments and attracting global and domestic investors.” Read more>>

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