Korean Fund Managers Target Distressed Debt and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

A series of defaults in Korea’s property market are creating opportunities for fund managers, with news of new distressed debt strategies leading Mingtiandi’s headline roundup today. Also in the news, Hong Kong home prices head south again as a post-policy shift bounce wears off and Blackstone’s big boss is back to boosting Trump.

Korean Investment Managers Raising Cash to Buy Up Distressed Property Loans

South Korean brokerage firms are scurrying to raise more than KRW 1.7 trillion ($1.24 billion) in private equity funds to bet on soured property loans amid prospects of accelerated project finance loan restructuring, according to investment banking sources on Friday.

Financial authorities expect about KRW 2 trillion, or 5-10 percent of the estimated KRW 23 trillion ($17 billion) in outstanding project finance loans in the country, to be restructured this year. Read more>>

Hong Kong Home Prices Rebound Shifts to Retreat

Hong Kong’s secondhand residential prices fell for the fourth week to the lowest in more than two months, erasing the gains in values after the government removed property curbs in February.

The values for used homes dropped 1.4 percent in the week ended May 19 compared with a week earlier, according to data from Centaline Property Agency. The decline also means that home prices are now lower than they were the when the government scrapped the extra property taxes. Read more>>

Blackstone’s Schwarzman Reverses Course, Pledges to Back Trump

Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire chair and chief executive officer of the Blackstone Group, said he would back former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, a reversal from his call for a “new generation of leaders” after the midterm elections.

Schwarzman, a lifelong Republican and megadonor to the party, had stuck by Trump after his defeat in 2020 and the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but turned away from him after many of the candidates Trump had hand-picked lost their midterm races in 2022. Read more>>

China Vanke Repackaging Debt into Mortgage-Backed Securities to Buy Time

China Vanke Co. repackaged some of its privately issued debt into asset-backed securities, a move that effectively allows the builder to push back already deferred payments, according to people familiar with the matter.

The existing notes, known as non-standard debt and held by insurers, were swapped this month into newly issued commercial mortgage-backed securities in equal proportions, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private. Read more>>

Singapore’s Stamford Land Reports 89% Drop in Net Profit

Stamford Land reported on Friday (May 24) an 88.9 percent decline in net profit for its second half, in the absence of disposal gains in the year-ago period.

Net profit for the six months ended Mar 31 fell to S$20.6 million ($15.3 million) from S$184.5 million in the same period a year ago. On a per-share basis, earnings fell to S$0.0138 from S$0.1235 over the same period. Read more>>

SGX-Listed Metro Group Says Profit Fell 23%

Metro Holdings’ net profit for the half-year ended March was down 23 percent to S$6.4 million, from S$8.3 million the year before.

This was despite a 3.8 percent rise in revenue of S$65.7 million for the period, reported the mainboard-listed property investment and development group on Friday (May 24). Earnings per share stood at S$0.008 for the half-year, down from S$0.01 in the corresponding year-ago period. Read more>>

Chinese Billionaire Puts Gold Coast Mansion on the Market at $33M

Billionaire developer Riyu Li is seeking a partner to build a housing estate on lots surrounding his Gold Coast mansion as part of a fresh push to offload the A$50 million ($33 million) semi-rural estate.‹

Mr Li, who initiated the A$1 billion Jewel three-tower project in Surfers Paradise, stunned the real estate industry when he turned down a cash offer of A$42 million for his Tallebudgera property, announced at auction in 2023. Read more>>

Record-Low Number of Young Hong Kongers Plan to Have Children

Only around half of Hong Kong’s young adults plan to have children, a record as the city struggles to boost fertility rates, according to a survey published on Friday (May 24).

The Chinese finance hub has one of Asia’s lowest fertility rates, combined with an ageing population, and last year recorded just 33,200 births in a city of 7.5 million. A survey by the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong showed 51.1 percent of young women and 44.8 percent of young men wanted children – a fall of around nine percentage points over the past decade to new depths. Read more>>

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