Tae-young Yang, CEO of Tera Funding
Proptech leads today’s news roundup, with a Korean real estate crowdfunding startup raising a pile of money in a record-breaking series A investment round. Also in the headlines, China Vanke and ZTE are set to move ahead on a Shenzhen development that could serve as office space for the telecom giant, and there’s a controversy brewing over a “married deal” involving a Chongqing-based, Singapore-listed property firm. Retail is in the news too, as department store operator Parkson has opened a new seven-storey mall in Malaysia. Read on for all these stories and more.
Seoul Crowdfunding Startup Raises $9.3M
Tera Funding, a leading real estate P2P lending company in Korea, announced that it has secured KRW 10 billion ($9.3 million) through its series A funding round from Woori Bank, Atinum Investment, SBI Investment and Premier Partners on January 8.
It is the largest single series A investment for Korean P2P lending start-ups, amid the general public’s increasing worries about the industry, with rising defaults and arrears mainly incurred by late-comers who take a riskier approach. The pioneering startup offers a proprietary loan evaluation model for small and medium-sized real estate projects. Read more>>
Telecom Giant ZTE Partners with Vanke on Shenzhen Complex
Telecommunication-equipment maker ZTE said it agreed on Thursday to sign a definitive agreement with a unit of China Vanke by February 9 for construction and operational services at a land site in Shenzhen.
ZTE had in June said that it acquired the land use rights for the site in the southern Chinese city, which has an area of 47,731 square meters, for RMB 3.54 billion ($560 million) through an auction. ZTE said at the time that it intends to develop the land into commercial complex buildings for the office premises of ZTE, or for investment purposes. Read more>>
Ying Li Shares Plunge After News of Off-Market Deal
Shares of Ying Li International Real Estate plunged 10.11 per cent on Friday following news that its CEO had disposed of some shares in a S$20.7 million married deal (an off-the-market share transaction between two parties on an agreed price). The property firm lifted a two-day trading halt at 8.30am after responding to a Singapore Exchange query on Thursday night.
As of 11.05am on Friday, Ying Li was trading down 10.11 per cent or 1.8 Singapore cents to 16 Singapore cents apiece. Some 38.1 million shares changed hands, making it one of the most actively traded counters on the Singapore bourse. The firm, responding to SGX, said on Thursday night that its CEO and chairman Fang Ming, who is also a controlling shareholder, had sold off 153 million shares at 13.5 Singapore cents apiece to another shareholder, State Alpha Limited. Read more>>
Kwek’s M&C Hotels Takeover Bid Rejected
An attempt by Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng to take full control of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C) in a deal valuing the business at £2 billion ($2.8 billion) collapsed after minority shareholders blocked the acquisition.
Kwek’s firm City Developments Limited (CDL), already M&C’s majority investor, secured acceptances from only 47.14 percent of the London-listed hotelier’s minority shareholders for its 620-pence-a-share offer, CDL said in a statement on Friday. That fell short of the 50 percent threshold needed for the bid to become unconditional and meant the offer lapsed, sending M&C shares down 4.7 percent to close at 546 pence. Kwek is chairman of the FTSE 250 company as well as CDL. Read more>>
Parkson Opens New Mall in Malaysia
Malaysian department store operator Parkson has made its way to Puchong in the country’s Selangor state, with the launch of Parkson M Square Mall, a new retail and lifestyle hub aiming to provide shoppers with an enjoyable shopping, entertainment and gastronomic experience.
A grand opening ceremony was held for Parkson M Square Mall, attended by Parkson management, guests, VIPs and shoppers. With its modern interior, brightly lit with spacious aisles, the mall in Millenia City, near Puchong Perdana, boasts seven levels with 32,516 square metres of retail space including two levels of carpark. Read more>>
Unit of Singapore’s Oxley Prices $115M Medium-Term Notes
A unit of Singapore’s Oxley Holdings has priced its S$150 million ($115 million) 5.70 percent notes, which mature on Jan 31, 2022 under a US$1 billion guaranteed euro medium term note programme.
Under the programme, its subsidiary Oxley MTN may “issue medium term notes unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by the company”. The net proceeds from the issue of the notes are presently intended to be used for general corporate purposes and working capital requirements of the company and its subsidiaries, joint venture entities and associated entities, Oxley said in a filing on Jan 25. 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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