Blackstone, CapitaLand Said Circling New World Assets and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Hong Kong’s New World Development leads the list of real estate happenings from around Asia as the defaulting developer is said to be shopping assets to Blackstone, CapitaLand and other investors in an effort to bail out its balance sheet. Also in the news today, an Indian developer preps for an IPO of its data centre unit and Swire Properties sells another Miami project.

Blackstone, CapitaLand Said in Talks to Buy New World Assets

New World Development Co. is in talks with several potential investors including Blackstone Inc. and CapitaLand Group Pte. as the cash-strapped Hong Kong developer seeks to dispose of assets to improve liquidity, according to people familiar with the matter.

Blackstone has been in discussions with New World to buy some of its assets, said the people, asking not to be identified talking about a private matter. The world’s largest alternative asset manager could be open to the option of taking the developer private, though there is no concrete proposal for this on the table, the people said. Read more>>

Data Centre Unit of India’s Sify Headed for $500M IPO

Sify Technologies Ltd’s data-center unit is preparing to submit a preliminary filing with the Indian regulator for an initial public offering that may fetch $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sify Infinit Spaces Ltd plans to file a so-called draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India in the coming weeks, the people said. The company, backed by Kotak Private Equity Group, is considering the sale of new and existing shares for the offering, which would value it at about $3 billion, they said. Read more>>

Swire Sells Miami Site to Atlantis Resorts for $45M

Swire Properties has sold another Miami asset with the US division of the Hong Kong-listed developer having disposed of a site in the city’s Brickell area for $45 million, according to local news reports citing public records.

Kerzner International, the parent firm of the high-end Atlantis Resorts chain, is reported to have acquired the North Squared site from Swire, with the new owner said to have plans for a 1.1 million square feet (102,193 square metre) project, combining condos, rental apartments and commercial space. Read more>>

Chair of Singapore’s Union Gas Buys Shophouses for $43.2M

Singapore Post has sold 10 Housing & Development Board (HDB) shophouses for S$55.5 million ($43.2 million), after putting them up for sale and leaseback earlier this year.

The buyer is Teo Kiang Ang, the founder and non-executive chairman of Union Gas who confirmed with Lianhe Zaobao on Monday (Aug 4) that he had purchased the properties. Teo is also the chairman and founder of taxi service provider Trans-cab. Read more>>

Naughty Thai Tycoon, Chinese SOE Charged in Bangkok Building Collapse

Thai prosecutors on Thursday indicted 23 suspects including a construction tycoon and a Chinese state-owned firm for violations that led to the collapse of a building during a powerful earthquake, killing nearly a hundred workers.

The partially built 30-storey State Audit Office tower in Bangkok was the only building to collapse from tremors emanating from the powerful 7.7 magnitude quake in neighbouring Myanmar on 28 March. At least 95 people were killed in the incident. Read more>>

Country Garden Wind-Up Hearing Postponed to January

Country Garden Holdings announced to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday that the city’s High Court has postponed a hearing on a petition to wind up the Chinese developer until 5 January.

The company led by heiress Yang Huiyan said that the petitioner has indicated to the court that it intends to support a proposal for restructuring the debt of the financially troubled builder. Read more>>

SGX-Listed Daiwa House Logistics Trusts Posts Dip in Distributions

The manager of Daiwa House Logistics Trust on Friday (Aug 8) posted a distribution per unit (DPU) of S$0.0224 ($0.017) for its first half ended 30 June, down 8.6 percent from S$0.0245 in the previous corresponding period.

This was attributed to higher interest expenses and lower realised exchange gains. The higher interest expenses came mainly from new borrowings drawn for acquisitions and a higher interest rate, as a result of the refinancing and restructuring of onshore yen borrowings in November 2024, said the manager. Read more>>

Boss of India’s Prestige Group Warns on Risks of Rising Costs

Billionaire Irfan Razack seized on India’s post-pandemic property boom to amass a $5.5 billion fortune alongside his two brothers.

Now, the 71 year old chairman and managing director of real estate developer Prestige Group is warning that pockets of stress are building even as the nation’s burgeoning property market motors on. Among these is an oversupply of office spaces, apartments and unsold stock in the tech hub of Hyderabad. In residential real estate, soaring costs are increasingly putting homeownership out of reach of many and cooling demand, he said. Read more>>

Korean Tax Agency Targets Foreign Luxury Homebuyers for Tax Evasion

The National Tax Service (NTS) has launched a crackdown on foreign homeowners who are suspected of evading taxes in purchasing and owning high-priced homes in Korea, the NTS announced Thursday. The tax agency said a total of 49 foreign nationals from 12 countries, with about two-thirds from the United States and China, are under investigation for allegedly exploiting loopholes in Korean housing regulations to avoid paying taxes. The amount suspected to have been evaded totals between KRW 200 billion ($144.2 million) and KRW 300 billion. Read more>>

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