Mapletree Business City (Phase 2) is anchored by Google
A Singapore commercial property trust leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines today with the news that the REIT has kicked off a $661 million equity sale to fund the acquisition of a business park that is anchored by Google.
In other news around the region, a South Korean financial firm has made the nation’s first major investment into US student housing, while the parent company of a co-working giant sets up a committee to deliberate over the company’s future.
Elsewhere, luxury property owners in Asia’s wealthiest, and most troubled, city are resorting to desperate leasing tactics to lure tenants.
Mapletree Commercial Trust Launches S$902M Equity Sale to Fund Google Biz Park Buy
Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT) has proposed an equity fundraising comprising of 406.5 million new units to raise at least S$902.3 million ($661 million), to partially fund its S$1.55 billion acquisition of Mapletree Business City (Phase 2).
The REIT manager also announced that it had obtained unitholders’ approval at an extraordinary general meeting for the proposed acquisition of Mapletree Business City (Phase 2), while would enlarge MCT’s asset size from S$7.4 billion to S$8.9 billion. Read more>>
Koreans Make $250M Plunge into US Student Digs
Korea Investment & Securities has acquired five US student housing properties for $250 million, in the first direct investment by a South Korean firm in the asset class.
Despite its relatively long investment period of ten years, the brokerage firm completed the resale to a domestic pension fund and other institutional investors, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Read more>>
The We Company Sets Up Committee to Decide on Softbank Lifeline
WeWork owner, The We Company, has formed a special board committee to consider proposals for a $5 billion financing lifeline from its largest shareholder SoftBank Group Corp and its main lender JPMorgan Chase & Co, four people familiar with the matter said.
The office-space sharing company is establishing the committee in an effort to ring-fence its financing deliberations from SoftBank’s influence, the sources said. The Japanese technology conglomerate owns about a third of WeWork, and any new equity investment could potentially give it control. Read more>>
Agile to Open RM 1.8B Embassy Garden in Kuala Lumpur
Agile Property Group, a top 30 mainland China property developer, will officiate the grand opening of Agile Embassy Garden in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur on 19 October.
Agile Embassy Garden, which has a gross development value of RM 1.8 billion ($430 million) is Agile’s third property project in Kuala Lumpur. The luxury mixed-use development is located on a three acre (12,141 square metre) freehold land previously occupied by the British High Commission at the renowned Embassy Row. Read more>>
7-Eleven Expands into China’s Heartland
7-Eleven, whose parent is Tokyo-based Seven & I Holdings, and which is one of world’s largest convenience store chains, has embarked on a business partnership with Hunan Friendship & Apollo Commercial to extend its business from China’s big cities to the central Chinese province of Hunan.
The Chinese firm, which is the largest retailer in the province, signed an exclusive regional franchise deal with the investment arm of 7-Eleven in China, the former said in a statement today. Read more>>
Hong Kong’s Luxury Property Owners Luring Tenants with Daily Leases
Investors of Hong Kong’s luxury villas and bungalows, struggling to keep prices aloft amid the city’s unprecedented civil strife and the US-China trade war, are resorting to innovative ways to find tenants and keep their property occupied.
Some owners are putting their landed property out for rent on a daily basis on Airbnb, while others are hiring agents to find medium-term tenants, while fewer buyers are looking at investing in multimillion dollar homes. Read more>>
New World’s Land Donation to Become 100-home “Light Village”
The man on the receiving end of Hong Kong’s biggest corporate bequeath is planning to build a village in a north-western corner of the city’s New Territories, across the Shenzhen Bay from southern China’s technology megapolis.
There, 100 homes, each measuring about 300 sq ft (28 square metres), will be ready for occupation by 2022 near the Tin Shui Wai subway station on farmland donated by New World Development. Named the Light Village, the housing community will be reserved for low-income families with children, said Ricky Yu, whose social-housing organisation Light Be is heading the project. Read more>>
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