Rob Speyer, president and CEO of US developer Tishman Speyer
At the top of today’s pan-Asian grab bag of headlines, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and a leading US developer are reportedly looking to sell a joint venture office project in one of India’s tech clusters. Also in the news, Hong Kong remains the most miserable housing market in the world, and that may help explain why the city is digging deep in search of more space. Also, the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing is planning to bring some flexibility to its headquarters office, and Shanghai is about to get a new French department store. Read on for all these stories and more.
GIC, Tishman Speyer Said Poised to Sell India Office Project for $314M
Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd and New York-based developer Tishman Speyer are set to sell their Hyderabad-based office property WaveRock for Rs2,000 crore ($313.6 million), said two people aware of the development.
WaveRock is an equal joint venture between GIC and Tishman Speyer, spread over 2.5 million square feet (232,258 square metres) in the Gachibowli financial district, a special economic zone (SEZ) promoted by the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corp (TSIIC). Read more>>
Hong Kong Housing Ranked World’s Least Affordable for 8th Year
Hong Kong was named the least affordable housing market for the eighth year in a study that put Sydney in the No. 2 slot and Vancouver as No. 3.
The median price of a home in Hong Kong is 19.4 times the median annual pre-tax household income, up from 18.1 times in the previous study by Demographia, an urban planning policy consultancy. Read more>>
Wanda Said To Hire Trio of Banks for Sports IPOs
Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group has tapped three banks including Citigroup Inc and UBS Group AG to work on a proposed initial public offering for its sports businesses, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
An IPO would follow a string of asset sales as Wanda works to meet debt repayment deadlines. It was one of several domestic conglomerates to be targeted by a government crackdown last year for aggressive overseas acquisitions, with sources saying banks were told to stop providing funding for some deals. Read more>>
AmCham Moves Beijing HQ to Naked Hub
AmCham China will be moving its headquarters at the end of the month from its current location in Beijing’s CBD area to a dedicated space in naked Hub’s Sanlitun location at Pacific Century Place, 2A Worker’s Stadium North Road, Chaoyang District. The move will be completed by Jan 29.
As well as accommodating the 50 staff working for the chamber and its affiliated Cooperative Programs, the new office space includes meeting and event rooms for the chamber’s exclusive use. AmCham China will also be able to take advantage of preferential access to its partner naked Hub’s shared facilities on the 4th and 5th floors, which include multifunction meeting rooms, event space for 200 people, gym, sauna and swimming pool. Read more>>
France’s Galeries Lafayette Readies Shanghai Flagship Store
French department store group Galeries Lafayette is to double its presence in China with a 25,000 square metre flagship store in Shanghai’s Pudong Mall. Galeries Lafayette China launched in Beijing in 2013.
To be run by the group’s local partner IT Limited, the Shanghai flagship will cover four floors with interior design by London-based architectural studio HMKM and will open by the end of this year. The department store says it has the “ambitious target” of opening about 10 stores in China’s six largest cities by 2025, as well as accelerating its presence on e-tail websites in China. Read more>>
Singapore Search Startup Buys Indonesia’s Largest Property Portal
Singaporean property search start-up 99.co has acquired Indonesia’s UrbanIndo — said to be the largest property portal in Indonesia, with more than 1.2 million active listings — for an undisclosed amount.
With the acquisition, 99.co is believed to be among the largest property listing portals in Singapore and Indonesia. Property consumers in both countries can now access 99.co for all property-related transactions. Read more>>
Hong Kong Digs Deep To Free Up Space
Hong Kong officials have suggested that logistics facilities, data centres, reservoirs, laboratories and even swimming pools are all suitable for subterranean development. The government has released a masterplan for potential sites – a programme that recently won an award from the International Tunnelling Association in Paris – and is working to move other public utilities underground.
The plan lists 48 potential underground and hillside sites for new caverns, eliminating the need for companies to locate their own. Hong Kong also already has several projects built inside hills, including a waste transfer station, an explosives depot, a reservoir and metro stations. Read more>>
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