Investors are expecting big discounts on office assets in Hong Kong
Beijing’s controversial new security law may worry many Hong Kong residents, but potential property investors seem to see the new legislation as an opportunity to pick up office assets on the cheap, according to one news account today.
Also finding its way into Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines, a mainland China internet titan is planning to invest $70 billion in digital infrastructure including data centres over the next five years, while another one of Fosun’s ill-fated investments has received a $200 million bailout offer.
Elsewhere, auditors have thrown up red flags over the financial health of China Minsheng Investment Group’s real estate unit.
Investors Lowball HK Office Owners with 35% Discount Offers
Commercial property prices in Hong Kong, which have fallen nearly 25 per cent since the protests started a year ago, are now facing pressure from Beijing’s plan to impose a national security law on the city. Now, buyers are seizing the opportunity to squeeze further discounts from sellers.
“Buyers are for sure looking for deeper discounts in case the situation gets worse,” said Vincent Cheung, managing director of Vincorn Consulting and Appraisal. “Most buyers are now offering 30 per cent to 35 per cent below the asking price now.” Read more>>
Tencent to Pump $70B into Digital Infrastructure
Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings plans to invest RMB 500 billion ($70 billion) over the next five years in new digital infrastructure, a major hi-tech initiative that would bolster Beijing’s efforts to drive economic recovery in the post-coronavirus era.
That massive investment will focus on fields that include cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain technology and Internet of Things, as well as the infrastructure to support them like advanced servers, supercomputers, data centres and 5G mobile networks, according to an announcement on Tencent’s official WeChat account on Tuesday. Read more>>
Thomas Lau’s Lifestyle Intl Buys £50M Stake in UK’s Landsec
A Hong Kong department stores operator run by the brother of Joseph Lau, the Chinese property billionaire, has assembled a £50 million stake in Land Securities.
In an announcement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Lifestyle International Holdings said that it had bought 5.7 million shares in the FTSE 100 property company. Read more>>
Fosun’s Cirque du Soleil Offered $200M Bailout
Cirque du Soleil, its spotlight dimmed by the coronavirus pandemic, will receive $200 million in aid from Canada’s Quebec province, an official said on Tuesday, as part of broader efforts to revive and keep the hard-hit international entertainment group based in Montreal.
Quebec Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said the province has an agreement in principle that would give it the option to buy a majority stake in Cirque if shareholders TPG and Chinese conglomerate Fosun International decide to pull out. Read more>>
Hong Kong Warms to Online Commerce Amid Pandemic
Kristy Wong, a 25-year-old marketing officer in Hong Kong, had never shopped online until the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike other young urbanites around the world looking for bargains on popular shopping sites, Wong was accustomed to buying items ranging from designer bags to birthday cakes just by walking into one of the city’s more than 62,000 retail stores.
Since early this year, however, the fear of coronavirus transmission interrupted the fun of wandering around malls. Now a renewed flare-up in protests over the weekend is expected to give further stimulus to e-commerce in a city that is considered a shopping paradise but is a surprising laggard in online retail. Read more>>
Carousell Launches Property Marketplace in Hong Kong
Carousell has been steadily expanding the range of offerings on its platform, and it has now officially launched Carousell Property in Hong Kong.
Collaborating with real estate agents Midland Realty and Sakura Global, house moving company Going Moving, and co-working space Metro Workshop, the Carousell Property marketplace features residential and industrial properties. Read more>>
Auditors Express Doubts about the Future of SRE Group
When SRE Group Limited reported its results to December 2019 its auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP could not be sure that it would be able to continue as a going concern in the next year.
It is therefore fair to assume that, based on those financials, the company should strengthen its balance sheet in the short term, perhaps by issuing shares. Read more>>
Tune in again soon for more Hong Kong news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
Leave a Reply