HNA’s Chen Feng may be feeling a bit stunned at the market news
East Asia is back to work today after playing pass the mooncake earlier in the week, and HNA Group found following the holiday that, along with the paste-filled pastries, investors have given the troubled mainland conglomerate a $10 billion mark-down on its market value. There’s also news of cooling housing markets in both mainland China and Hong Kong, and still more stories await you below.
HNA Loses $10B in Market Value After Fire Sale
Months after HNA Group Co began reversing a $40bn overseas buying spree and suspended trading in seven listed units, investors have put a price on the turmoil: $10bn. That’s how much the subsidiaries had lost in market value as of yesterday, when HNA Technology Co plunged in Shanghai, where it traded for the first time since January.
Since the suspensions started being lifted months ago, the seven units have lost about a quarter of their total market value, underscoring the challenges the aviation-to-hotels conglomerate faces as it sells assets to pay down one of Asia’s largest debt piles. Read more>>
Mainland Developers Up Incentives as Market Cools
China’s property developers are aggressively ramping up marketing efforts to sell more flats to boost cash flow as buyers in the biggest mainland cities are in no hurry to make purchases in the current market slump.
Developers in first-tier Chinese cities have adopted numerous marketing tactics to capitalise on the holiday period, from the Mid-Autumn Festival this week to the upcoming National Day holiday on October 1, a traditional peak season for property sales. Read more>>
Hong Kong Homebuyers Stay Confident as Analysts Fret
Hong Kong families bought 505 flats on the holiday Tuesday in the city’s biggest home sale in more than five years, confidently defying the latest red flags about a coming downturn in the property market.
Two developers offered a total of 857 flats. At the larger sale of the day, Nan Fung Development had by 9.15pm sold 67.9 per cent of 707 flats available at its LP6 development in Tseung Kwan O. For those 480 flats, the developer pulled in about HK$4.62 billion (US$591.6 million) on Tuesday. Read more>>
Manager of Singapore’s Manulife US REIT Stays Confident
ANXIETIES over rising interest rates and the US-China trade war are weighing on Manulife US REIT’s price performance this year, but the REIT’s manager remains upbeat on its prospects.
Units in the pure-play US office REIT closed at 80 US cents on Tuesday, up half a cent from Monday, but lower than its initial public offering (IPO) price of 83 US cents. Read more>>
Malaysia Leads Pushback on China’s Belt and Road
More countries are taking Malaysia’s cue in reconsidering projects involving Chinese firms, as concerns grow over the ominous nature of Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad moved quickly to try and cancel such projects shortly after coming to power in May, succeeding in terminating three gas pipeline projects worth billions owing to allegedly suspicious payment structures. Read more>>
Frasers Tower Deal in SG Shows Growth in Green Loans
Asian property developers are delving deeper into green loans, as shown by a recent deal tied to a premium office tower in a Singapore park.
Singapore-based Frasers Property Ltd raised a S$1.2 billion (RM3.64 billion) green loan, the first of its kind by a Southeast Asian borrower under principles set by Asia Pacific Loan Market Association (APLMA) in March that aim to standardise disclosure. Read more>>
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