
K&K Property purchased Orion House in London
A London office deal leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines with the news that a Hong Kong-based firm has made its debut buy in the Brexit-encumbered city.
In other news around the region, a Canada-headquartered asset manager is mulling a $1 billion India REIT listing, while Softbank-backed Yahoo Japan has exited its room rental venture with a Gurugram-based hotel chain.
Elsewhere, the CEO of a Singapore listings website has vowed to make a comeback after the company’s botched IPO in October.
K&K Property Makes London Debut with £130M Office Deal
Hong Kong’s K&K Property Holdings has made its first investment in the London market with the acquisition of an office block in Covent Garden for £130 million ($169 million). The former owner, central London property specialist Welput – which is managed by Bentall Green Oak – bought Orion House in 2010.
Tenants in the 90,916 square foot (8,446 square metre) tower include co-working firm The Office Group and Marathon Asset Management. CBRE, Mayer Brown and Deloitte advised K&K Property Holdings. JLL, BNP Paribas and Norton Rose Fulbright advised Welput. Read more>>
M&G Real Estate Buys 12 Japan Properties
Global real estate investor M&G Real Estate has added 12 more residential properties to its Japan portfolio. This acquisition is the second time this year the investor has added to its residential Japanese property portfolio this year, following the acquisition of three properties in Kobe and Nagoya in October.
The 12 new properties are located in prime districts in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Fukuoka. They comprises residential properties with convenient access to public transportation, employment, and local amenities. The properties are also almost fully occupied. Read more>>
Brookfield Mulls $1B India REIT Listing
Brookfield Asset Management is considering bundling its commercial real estate assets in India into a real estate investment trust for a listing next year, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Canadian asset manager has held discussions on a potential initial public offering of a property trust that could raise more than $1 billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private. Brookfield is considering including about 15 million square feet to 20 million square feet (1.9 million square metres) of real estate, one of the people said. Read more>>
SoftBank’s Yahoo Japan Exits Japan Oyo Venture
India’s Oyo Hotels and Homes said on Thursday SoftBank-controlled Yahoo Japan has quit its Japanese room rental venture, in the latest setback for the fast growing, money losing startup.
Oyo, which is also backed by SoftBank Group Corp, said it has bought back the shares in Japanese apartment rental company Oyo Life held by internet firm Yahoo Japan, now known as Z Holdings, for an undisclosed amount. Read more>>
Oyo Likely to Cut 2,000 Jobs by January
SoftBank-backed Oyo Hotels and Homes will lay off at least 2,000 employees in India by the end of January, the Economic Times reported here citing people close to the company. The Indian hospitality startup plans to cut jobs as its business was dented amid rising discontent among hotel owners, the paper reported.
Last month, the company’s internal projections showed that its India business will likely make losses until 2021. The growing losses at Oyo come as its major investor SoftBank struggles to raise funding for a second investment fund, after the failed listing of office-rental company WeWork and amid questions about the path to profitability of other marquee investments such as Uber. Read more>>
Samsung Launches Asia REIT-Focused Fund
Samsung Asset Management has launched a fund investing in real estate investment trusts (REITs) of five Asian countries including South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong, the company announced on Thursday.
The Samsung Asia-Pacific REITs Fund was formed based on the company’s successful operation of Samsung J-REITs Fund that gained a huge popularity and saw a money inflow of more than 120 billion won ($103 million) this year. Read more>>
PropertyGuru CEO Vows to Make a Comeback after Botched IPO
In late October, PropertyGuru’s board huddled with investment bankers from Credit Suisse Group, UBS Group and others to discuss the Singapore startup’s impending initial public offering.
Talks with potential investors had coincided with a slump in Australian tech stocks; people were starting to question its targeted valuation of A$1.36 billion ($940 million). Read more>>
Chinese ABS Market Expanded to Grow After 2019 Surge
Volumes in China’s securitization market surged this year, with expectations high that the traditional auto ABS and residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) markets will continue strongly in 2020.
But cracks are starting to appear in some of the other faster-growing asset types, writes Rebecca Feng. Read more>>
Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
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