Melbourne’s Southern Cross Towers may soon have a new owner
In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, Singapore’s GIC nears a record-breaking Melbourne office deal alongside Aussie fund manager Charter Hall, SGX-listed Starhill Global REIT posts solid quarterly growth, and time runs short for delinquent firms to file annual reports with the Hong Kong stock exchange.
GIC, Charter Hall Close In on $1.5B Melbourne Office Buy
Property fund manager Charter Hall has locked onto Australia’s biggest direct office tower transaction, a A$2.1 billion ($1.5 billion) deal to acquire the two-tower Southern Cross complex in the Melbourne CBD, backed by Singapore’s powerful sovereign wealth fund, GIC.
While the sheer scale of the deal is historic, more focus will turn to the investment yield of about 4.5 percent at which the deal is expected to be struck. That yield is a little softer than pricing on Sydney’s trophy towers but nevertheless represents a relatively tight return on capital invested into a city that experienced two years of rolling lockdowns. Read more>>
Starhill Global REIT Reports NPI Up 8.7% in Fiscal Q3
Singapore-listed Starhill Global REIT posted a net property income of S$38.5 million (now $27.9 million) for its third fiscal quarter, up 8.7 percent from S$35.4 million the year before.
The trust’s revenue rose 4.2 percent year-on-year to S$48.4 million. Read more>>
Amara Objects to Independent Director’s Departure Notice
Property developer and hotelier Amara Holdings responded to former independent director and chairman of the remuneration committee Tan Tiong Cheng, noting that it does not consider its outstanding material issues before the remuneration committee as an “unresolved matter”.
Following the Singapore-listed company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, a bourse notification of Tan’s cessation as a director indicated that there were “unresolved differences” in opinion on material matters between him and the board. Read more>>
Cuscaden and Friends to Own 47% of SPH REIT Units
Cuscaden Peak and its concert parties behind the takeover of Singapore Press Holdings are expected to make a chain offer for SPH REIT.
Cuscaden — a consortium backed by Hotel Properties, businessman Ong Beng Seng and Temasek-linked entities CLA and Mapletree — had offered each SPH shareholder the option of an all-cash offer of S$2.36, or S$2.40 per share comprising S$1.602 cash and 0.782 of an SPH REIT unit through a distribution-in-specie by SPH. Read more>>
Clock Is Ticking for Delinquent Hong Kong-Listed Developers
Hong Kong-listed firms that have not submitted audited annual results have until mid-May before they risk a trading suspension, with the deadline likely to put pressure on real estate developers.
Some 192 firms had filed unaudited earnings by the end of March to avoid having their shares suspended. With companies citing issues caused by COVID-19 outbreaks for the delays, firms were given until 15 May to file their annual reports, which would include audited earnings, according to the stock exchange. The exchange would consider applications from companies needing additional time beyond the deadline on a case-by-case basis. Read more>>
Visitor Numbers to Drive Recovery at Marina Bay Sands
The growing tally of visitors is expected to drive recovery for Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The resort hotel generated positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the quarter ended 31 March, owner-operator Las Vegas Sands said Wednesday.
Las Vegas Sands — which also owns, among other properties, The Parisian Macao and Four Seasons Hotel Macao — said it also secured positive adjusted property EBITDA for the company as a whole during the quarter. Read more>>
Nanjing Eases Housing Market Restrictions
Nanjing, the capital of eastern China’s economically developed Jiangsu province, has surreptitiously relaxed some restrictions on home purchases in place since 2017 in an effort to stem the slide in local real estate sales.
Except for some sectors, restrictive policies are no longer valid in most areas of downtown Qixia district, staff at the district’s housing bureau confirmed to Yicai Global. But the changes have not been set out in any official document. Read more>
India Housing Sales Jumped 13% in Q1
Housing sales in India rose by nearly 13 percent on a quarterly basis and by 40 percent year-on-year to more than 70,000 units in the first three months of 2022, according to CBRE.
The affordable/budget segment’s share of sales remained stable at 27 percent in the first quarter. Sales in the high-end category jumped to 23 percent from 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, while those in the mid-end segment dropped to 41 percent. Read more>>
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