CapitaLand China Trust Posts 7.7% Income Drop in Q1 and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

China’s ongoing property woes are hurting returns for a CapitaLand-sponsored REIT, with that story leading Mingtiandi’s real estate headlines today. Country Garden also makes news with the troubled developer avoiding its first onshore bond default and a metals magnate’s daughter buys a Singapore bungalow for $61 million.

CapitaLand China Trust Posts 7.7% Drop in Q1 NPI to $43M

CapitaLand China Trust’s net property income for the first quarter fell 7.7 percent year-on-year to RMB 313.1 million ($43.2 million).

The manager said in a business update on Wednesday that this was mainly due to lower contributions from logistics parks and the absence of a one-off property tax refund from CLCT’s business parks. Read more>>

Country Garden Extends Bonds to Avoid First Local Default

Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings, one of the biggest symbols of the nation’s broader property debt crisis, won approval to push back payments on three RMB bonds, people familiar with the matter said, staving off its first local default for now.

Noteholders finished voting this week to extend coupon and principal instalment payments to September, said the people, asking not to be identified. The company had missed initial deadlines from 12 March through 12 April for the payments. Grace periods of 30 trading days were set to soon expire, after which creditors could have declared defaults if they hadn’t agreed to the extensions. Read more>>

Daughter of Chinese Tycoon Picks Ups $61M Singapore Bungalow

The daughter of China-born steel-and-nickel magnate Xiang Guangda has become the owner of a large brand-new bungalow in the Bin Tong Park Good Class Bungalow Area of Singapore.

She paid S$84 million ($61.7 million) for the two-storey freehold property, which has enough space to park eight to 10 cars. The price works out to S$2,988 per square foot on the land area of 28,111 square feet (2,612 square metres). Read more>>

Ping An Profit Falls as Market Rout Hurts Investment Returns

Ping An Insurance’s profit dropped 4.3 percent in the first quarter as stock market declines and falling bond yields eroded investment returns.

Net income fell to RMB 36.7 billion ($5 billion) in the three months ended 31 March, the Shenzhen-based company said Tuesday in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange. Read more>>

OUE REIT Obtains $441M Unsecured Sustainability-Linked Loan 

OUE REIT has obtained an unsecured sustainability-linked loan of S$600 million ($440.8 million). The proceeds will be used for the REIT’s early refinancing of S$540 million in existing secured borrowings due in 2025 and for general corporate purposes, the trust’s manager said in a bourse filing on Tuesday.

OCBC was the sole mandated lead arranger and bookrunner, as well as the sustainability coordinator for the transaction. Read more>>

First REIT Reports 3.2% Lower Q1 DPU Amid Interest Rate Headwinds

First REIT’s distribution per unit fell 3.2 percent year-on-year to S$0.006 for the first quarter ended 31 March.

Rental and other income declined 2.7 percent on the year to S$26.1 million ($19.2 million) for the quarter, while net property and other income decreased 2.1 percent to S$25.3 million. Read more>>

Blackstone Signs Over $1B Deal With MBK for 1st Exit in Korea

Private equity giant Blackstone is set to mark its first exit from South Korea by selling a 71.25 percent stake in the holding firm of Geo-Young Corp, the country’s largest medicine wholesaler, for more than $1 billion to Asian buyout firm MBK Partners, sources familiar with the matter said Monday.

MBK recently signed a stock purchase agreement to buy the controlling stake in the holding firm Cho Sunhae GY Holdings, according to sources. The company, valued at around KRW 2 trillion ($1.4 billion), owns 100 percent of Geo-Young. Read more>>

The Folly of China’s Real Estate Boom Was Easy to See, But No One Wanted to Stop It  

When New York hedge fund manager Parker Quillen visited a glitzy new development in northern China called Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan, he wondered how on earth the developer would fill all that space.

It had apartments starting at $1 million and plans for an office tower bigger than the Empire State Building, an opera hall, shopping malls and hotels. Its total square footage was to exceed the land area of Monaco. Read more>>

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