Mirae Named as Preferred Buyer for $5.5B Anbang Hotels

Anbang’s $5.5 billion US hotel portfolio includes the Chicago Intercontinental

The latest chapter in the saga of a US hotel portfolio belonging to a naughty mainland insurer leads Mingtiandi’s roundup of real estate headlines today with the news that a South Korean financial services group has been named the preferred buyer for the hostelries, shouldering off bids from other suitors including Brookfield.

In other news around the region, a Chinese developer is in hot water through a corruption probe down under after slipping an official $67,500 in cash, while a mainland real estate firm has topped out the first building of a $507 million development in Melbourne.

Mirae Named Preferred Buyer for $5.5B Anbang Portfolio

Mirae Asset Financial Group has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire a portfolio of 15 US luxury hotels owned by Anbang Insurance Group, valued at $5.5 billion, in what would be the biggest cross-border real estate investment by a South Korean company.

A consortium of Mirae Asset’s units was recently named by the Chinese insurer as the preferred buyer of the set of hotels, beating other suitors including Brookfield Asset Management and Softbank-owned Fortress Investment Group, a source with knowledge of the matter said on 25 August. Read more>>

Developer Huang Xiangmo Gave A$100,000 in Cash to Aussie Official

The developer behind the multi-billion-dollar Gold Coast Jewel and One Circular Quay projects, Huang Xiangmo, handed over A$100,000 ($67,553) in cash to former NSW Labor party boss Jamie Clements during a private meeting at his office, a corruption inquiry has heard.

The NSW anti-corruption watchdog conducted its first public hearing of a six-week-long inquiry into allegations concerning political donations on Monday. Read more>>

China Housing Market to Slow Amid Clampdowns

China’s housing market is expected to slow this year with sales forecast to drop, as Beijing steps up efforts to scrutinize banks and provincial governments to keep a lid on lending and prices, a Reuters poll showed.

A resilient property market has provided some cushion for the world’s second-largest economy as policymakers try to revive the ailing manufacturing sector and restore flagging consumer confidence amid an escalating trade war with the United States. Read more>>

China Tweaks Land Use Laws

China’s top legislature on Monday adopted a revision to the land administration law to clarify land property rights, improve administration and regulate government land requisition.

The registration of ownership and use right of the land, including the land owned by a rural community, should follow the same law and administrative regulations applied on the registration of real estate, according to the revised law, adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress at its bimonthly session. Read more>>

R&F Tops out on A$750M Australia Development

R&F Property Australia, part of global property development group R&F Properties, has topped out on the first building of a A$750 million ($507 million), eight-building residential and mixed-use development in Melbourne.

Dubbed “Live City”, the development is being built on the Kinnears Ropeworks factory site at 124-128 Ballarat Road in Footscray by developer R&F Property. Read more>>

Former Embassy Industrial Parks CEO Launches India Warehousing Venture

Anshul Singhal, the former CEO of Embassy Industrial Parks, the joint venture between Embassy Group and Warburg Pincus has launched his entrepreneurial venture One Industrial Spaces, an integrated organisation for fund, asset and end-to-end development management for the warehousing sector in India.

The newly formed firm will focus on tier I and II towns and will deploy capital to unlock prime lands via flexible models of partnerships, JVs and development management options — a first of its kind in the country. Read more>>

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