Millennium and Copthorne Agrees to £2B CDL Buyout Bid and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Singapore’s CDL is back in the news again today after it appears to have achieved its mission of buying out a London-listed hotel chain already controlled by the property firm. Also grabbing some air time is mainland media darling and SOHO China CEO Zhang Xin who predicts slow going for the country’s property market in 2018, and there’s much more if you just keep reading.

Millennium and Copthorne Agrees to £2b CDL Buyout Bid

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels has agreed to a sweetened takeover offer from its majority shareholder that values the London-listed company at about 2 billion pounds (S$3.63 billion) after an earlier bid was heavily criticised by minority investors.

City Developments Limited (CDL), a vehicle of Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, who is also chairman of M&C, has offered 620 pence per share in cash to acquire the 34.8 per cent of the FTSE 250 hotelier that it does not already own, the companies said in a statement on Friday. Read more>>

SOHO China’s Zhang Xin Warns of Property Slowdown

Property price gains in China are likely to slow due to official efforts to rein in the market, a top real estate executive said Thursday.

“For years, the Chinese government has had the effort to control the speed of the fast-rising property price, so there’s always been policies coming out to control the market, but now this becomes a real nation-wide effort,” said SOHO China CEO Zhang Xin. Read more>>

HSBC Steps Up Scrutiny of HNA

HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank by assets, has told its dealmakers to avoid pursuing business for now with embattled Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co., people with knowledge of the matter said.

Senior HSBC officials told bankers in recent months not to pitch HNA for new merger advisory work or lend additional money to the conglomerate, according to the people. The bank stepped up its scrutiny of HNA this autumn, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Read more >>

Fosun Said Exploring $500M-Plus Tourism IPO in Hong Kong

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International is in talks with investment banks to list its tourism business to raise at least US$500 million, according to people familiar with the situation. Fosun Tourism & Culture Group, Fosun’s tourism unit, includes resort operator Club Med, a Chinese joint venture with tour operator Thomas Cook Group and the luxury Atlantis Resort Hotel in Sanya, Hainan province.

The Shanghai-based parent is considering spinning off the unit as early as next year and is likely to pick Hong Kong as the listing venue, according to the people. Read more>>

China Capital Controls Creating Brisbane Bargains

On a recent Sunday morning in the sun-drenched Australian city of Brisbane, about 50 ‘property tourists’ boarded a bus tour with a difference.

The group – all local Aussies looking to purchase their first homes – were shuttled to five new apartment projects where brochures promised they could “capitalize on international deposit defaults” and snap up properties at sharp discounts. Read more>>

China’s CSCEC Wins Contract to Extend Singapore Metro Line

Chinese firm China State Construction Engineering Corporation has won a $79 million contract to build tunnels for an extension of the North-East MRT line, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on Friday (Dec 8).

The contract is for the construction of 830m-long tunnels between the existing Punggol station and the upcoming Punggol Coast station. Read more>>

China Property Market Set to Slow in 2018 Says CASS

China’s property market is expected to cool in 2018 as growth in real estate investment, property sales value and home prices might slow, according to an annual research report released Tuesday.

“In general, this short period of pick-up in the property market is drawing to a close. A new period of correction and cooling will emerge next year,” said the report from the National Academy of Economic Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Read more>>

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