Mirae Misses Payment on $5.8B Hotel Deal and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

The novel coronavirus continues to create a new reality for real estate investment around the region, as a report reveals that one of Korea’s largest asset managers has defaulted on its obligations in a $5.8 billion acquisition of a set of US hotels. Also in virus-related news, Hong Kong home sales turned sour for the fourth weekend in the past six weeks, but the world’s biggest seller of flat-pack furniture says that its business in China is already on the rebound.

Mirae Fails to Make Payment on $5.8B Buy of Anbang Hotels

The Korean asset manager that had promised to buy a chain of luxury US hotels sold off by distressed Chinese insurer Anbang has failed to make a payment due on April 17, raising questions about whether the $5.8bn deal will proceed as planned.

Mirae said the deal was still ongoing and that it was in talks with Anbang. “We are still negotiating the deal [with Anbang] and continue to communicate with them,” said a company spokesman, who denied Mirae was in technical default, adding there had been no agreed deadline for the payment. Read more>>

Wanda’s AMC Theatres Sued for Not Paying Rent

AMC Theatres, which shuttered all 1,006 of their multiplexes across the world this March in the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, is being sued in Florida for nonpayment of April rent. Shopping mall landlord Palm Springs Mile Associates, Ltd filed suit this past week against The AMC Hialeah 12 for failing to pay the monthly installment of $52,153.87 for their leased cinema space.

Although AMC had informed the Miami area landlord in March that they would not be able to make the April rent payment, the lawsuit went forward saying that the lease guaranteed they would pay each installment in a timely manner. The suit also said the failure of payment triggered an immediate requirement for AMC to pay the balance of their lease and sought further damages to the tune of $7.5 million. Read more>>

Hong Kong Home Sales Flop for Fourth Weekend Out of Six

Hong Kong’s weekend home sales flopped for the fourth time in six weeks, in another sign that the residential property industry’s worst slump in a decade has some ways to go before recovering.

CK Asset Holdings sold 11 of the 170 Seaside Sonata flats on offer in Sham Shui Po at 7pm, as buyers shrugged aside the 29 per cent average discount offered by one of Hong Kong’s biggest developers. Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), the city’s biggest builder by market value, sold 12 of 20 Mount Regency II apartments in Tuen Mun, and found buyers for 12 out of 14 units at St Martin in Tai Po. Read more>>

Evergrande Breaks Ground on World’s Biggest Football Stadium in Guangzhou

Evergrande Group has begun work on what will be the world’s largest purpose-built soccer stadium, with a capacity of 100,000 seats, in the southern city of Guangzhou, the Chinese real estate company has said.

Construction of the Guangzhou Evergrande Soccer Stadium, also dubbed “Lotus Flower Stadium” for its design, started on April 16 and would cost around 12 billion yuan (US$1.69 billion) to complete, the group said. Read more>>

IKEA Says Stores Bouncing Back in China, Germany

Furniture brand IKEA’s main retail vehicle said on Friday shoppers were returning quickly to its shopping centres after it reopened three in China last week, and one in Germany this week – its first four to open after closures due to the coronavirus.

Ingka Group, which besides most IKEA stores also owns 45 shopping centres in Europe, Russia and China, said visitor numbers were back to 70-80% of year-ago levels in the centres in China, indicating shopper confidence was recovering rapidly. Read more>>

Shimao Property in HK$2.3B Share Sale

Mainland developer Shimao Property (0813) is raising HK$2.31 billion from a share placement of 78.1 million existing shares at HK$29.73 per share.

The offered price is a 2.2 percent discount from the previous closing price on Wednesday. The number of placed shares represents 2.21 percent of of the company’s issued share capital as enlarged by the placement. Read more>>

Construction of New HK Homes Fell 77% in Q1

The coronavirus outbreak is telling on Hong Kong’s property market. As the economic downturn dampens appetites for new homes, property developers are adopting a cautious approach, slowing down the construction of new projects and launching fewer new flats.

The building of new homes fell 77 per cent in the first quarter of the year from the previous three-month period to just 900 units, the lowest since the third quarter of 2017, data from the Transport and Housing Bureau shows. Read more>>

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