The Excelsior Hotel (left) has been approved for redevelopment as commercial space
China’s clampdown on outbound capital might have cost the Mandarin Oriental Hotels group its chance at a record sale as the hospitality group announced this week that it is pulling its Causeway Bay property off the market after bids failed to meet expectations. Also, in the news, China’s Wanda continues to shift assets back and forth across the Hong Kong border and Vanke is said to be looking for a piece of a Russian developer. Read on for all these stories and more.
Mandarin Oriental Scraps Excelsior Hotel Sale After Offers Disappoint
Mandarin Oriental International Ltd. scrapped the sale of The Excelsior hotel in Hong Kong after bids failed to meet its expectations, a rare setback in a city where property prices have continued to hit fresh record highs.
The Singapore-listed company’s shares slumped as much as a record 32 percent after surging 86 percent through Tuesday since saying it would test interest in the property. Read more>>
Wanda Shuffle Continues as Hotel Mgmt Arm Sold to HK-Listed Unit
Dalian Wanda’s Hong Kong-listed arm will buy a majority equity stake in Wanda’s hotel management arm for $112.4m.
Wanda did not disclose the exact size of the stake but said it was somewhere in between 25 to 100 per cent, according to a filing posted to the Hong Kong stock exchange Tuesday night. Read more>>
Vanke Said in Discussions to Buy Russian Developer Stake
O1 Properties, one of Russia’s largest commercial property owners, is in talks with Chinese developer Vanke Group, about a potential stake sale, a source close to the talks told Reuters on Tuesday.
China’s second largest property developer by sales, Vanke has been diversifying into commercial businesses and businesses such as rental housing amid tough. Read more>>
SG Home Prices Set for Recover, HK Will Never Fall Says BNP Paribas
Singapore home prices have reached a bottom and will rebound, while Hong Kong’s “crazy” housing market will continue to defy gravity, according to BNP Paribas SA.
“Very significant” income growth will drive the first leg of a recovery in home prices in Singapore, where property ownership as a proportion of household assets is near a record low, BNP’s Asia-Pacific head of research for financial institutions and property Wee Liat Lee said in an interview while visiting the city-state. That will boost prices by 10 percent to 15 percent over the next 12 to 15 months, in turn luring foreign buyers, especially from China, Lee said. Read more>>
Thailand’s TCC Land Plans $1.5B Shopping Centre Expansion
TCC Land Asset World, the retail firm of billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, plans to spend about 50 billion baht (HK$11.8 billion) to add shopping centres into its various retail formats over the next decade.
Managing director Napat Charoenkul said new retail projects will be developed across the country over the next 10 years and they will be built in different formats under existing or new brands. Read more>>
China’s CIC Aims to Boost Alternative Investments
China Investment Corporation, the world’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund, is ready to target more overseas alternative assets and direct investment in the next decade, as its strategy shifts amid tightening global liquidity.
Guo Xiangjun, CIC executive vice-president, told China Daily that alternative asset investment, including hedge funds, private equity, and real assets, will surpass public equity and account for more than 50 percent of the fund’s portfolio during the next 10 years. Read more>>
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