Korea’s Hana Buys Dublin Office Asset for €145M and More Asia Real Estate News

Koreans in Ireland and Singaporean’s in co-living lead Mingtiandi’s news roundup today as Hana Financial Group wraps up another Dublin shopping trip by making Ireland’s biggest property purchase so far this year. CapitaLand also hits the headlines with an announcement of 14 new properties under its Ascott serviced apartment division, and continuing in the modern residential theme, an Indian startup raised $9.2 million in venture funding for its own approach to apartments with shared kitchens. Read on for all these stories and more.

Korea’s Hana Buys Dublin Office Asset for €145M After WeWork Lease

Vestas Investment Management has completed the €145 million ($163.34 million) purchase of Charlemont Exchange in Dublin from Marlet on behalf of a Korean institutional investor. The transaction was announced just six months after WeWork had taken a 20-year lease on the property.

The deal was the first €100m-plus property transaction of 2019 in Ireland, and the Korean firm, said to be Hana Financial Group, was represented by Savills Investment Management. Read more>>

Singapore Leasing Market Rebound in March

As leasings bounced back after the Chinese New Year lull, rents for non-landed private homes edged up 0.3 per cent in March from February, while those for HDB flats inched up 0.2 per cent.

This is according to flash estimates from real estate portal SRX on Wednesday (April 10). Condominium and private apartment rents remained unchanged in February from January, while HDB rents dipped a revised 0.1 per cent, said SRX. Read more>>

CapitaLand’s Ascott Adds 14 More Properties to Global Catalogue

The Ascott Limited, CapitaLand’s lodging business unit, has won contracts to manage 14 properties with over 2,000 units in China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.

The 14 new properties included Ascott’s first foray into Changchun, the second largest city in Northeast China, as well as Germany’s first Ascott The Residence with the 100-unit Ascott Riverpark Tower Frankfurt. Read more>>

Gemini US Unit Relocates to Los Angeles

Gemini Rosemont Commercial Real Estate, a unit of Hong Kong’s Gemini Investments which controls 8 million square feet of US office space, has moved its headquarters from New Mexico to Los Angeles.

Gemini left its original location in Santa Fe, its corporate home since 1992, to move into leased space at 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City. The Santa Fe operation will continue to provide support services to the company. Read more>>

Indian Co-Living Startup Raises $9.2M

Technology-driven co-living startup Colive has raised $9.2 million (Rs 63 crore) in a Series A round from real estate developer Salarpuria Sattva Group. The Bengaluru-based company will use the funds to scale up its operations from 12,000 beds at present to 100,000 beds over the next two years at the same time that it expands its presence to Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune.

Colive will also use the funds to build a full-stack, tech-driven platform. Founded in 2016, Colive India had earlier raised Rs 17 crore in pre-Series A funding. According to rental platform PropTiger, the co-living market in India is estimated at $93 billion over the next ten years, as against the current market size of $200 million. Read more>>

China’s CIC Confirms Appointment of Peng Chun as Chairman

China’s sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC) said on Tuesday that Peng Chun has been named its chairman. The company made the annoucement on its website.

Reuters reported last week, citing sources, that Peng, who has been chairman of Bank of Communications , would become CIC’s chairman. Read more>>

KKR to Unload Stake in India’s HDFC Bank Today

Private equity giant KKR will offload around 1.14 crore shares, or a 0.42 per cent stake, in India’s most valuable lender HDFC Bank through a bulk deal on April 10, according to bankers. There are expectations that the offer price will be up to 3 per cent discount to Tuesday’s closing price of Rs 2,287.25. The deal is expected to fetch about Rs 2,614 crore to KKR.

For KKR, the deal will be yet another monetisation of its India investments. The firm has sold shares in Magma Fincorp and Coffee Day Enterprises last year. The fund has invested more than $9 billion in India since 2009, through private equity, structured credit as well as real estate investments. Read more>>

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