Chairman’s Advisor Blamed in CDL Succession Feud and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

The CEO of City Developments Ltd hits back at his dad’s allegations of a boardroom coup at the Singaporean giant, with that family feud leading today’s headline roundup. Also making news, Hong Kong’s Sun Hung Kai Properties reports rising earnings and Indian fund manager Welspun One invests in nine warehouses.

Sherman Kwek Blames Father’s Advisor in CDL Succession Feud

The scion of Singapore’s richest family denied his father’s claim that he was leading a boardroom coup, saying the primary reason for the family dispute lies with a key advisor to the billionaire patriarch.

“There has been no attempt by us to oust the chairman,” Sherman Kwek, chief executive of City Developments Ltd, said in a statement late Thursday referring to his father. “The chairman’s claim that there is an ‘attempted coup’ by the majority directors to consolidate control of CDL’s board is not only incorrect, it distracts from the nub of the issue.” Read more>>

Sun Hung Kai Properties Reports Profit Jump on Higher Revenue

Hong Kong’s biggest developer posted an increase in first-half profit as it navigated the city’s prolonged real estate slump with a jump in property sales revenue.

Sun Hung Kai Properties’ underlying earnings, which exclude property revaluations, climbed 17 percent from a year earlier to HK$10.5 billion ($1.4 billion) in the six months to the end of December, the company said Thursday in a filing. Read more>>

Welspun Completes Deployment of Latest India Logistics Fund 8 Months After Closing

Logistics and industrial real estate manager Welspun One has invested over INR 20 billion ($230 million) across nine Grade A warehousing assets through its WOLP Fund 2, marking the complete deployment of the fund eight months after its final closing.

Given the increasing scale and capital intensity of these investments, Welspun One has upsized the fund through co-investments, targeting commitments of up to INR 10 billion, with robust visibility of INR 6 billion. Read more>>

Hong Kong Vows to End Dependence on Land Sales Revenue

Hong Kong will no longer rely heavily on land sales as the government’s major source of income, the city’s finance chief has said, even as lawmakers contend that the revenue stream is “irreplaceable”.

Paul Chan’s remarks in a legislative meeting on Thursday were in response to calls from lawmakers to make land bidding exercises more attractive to developers, a day after he announced in the budget that authorities would not sell commercial parcels in the coming financial year. Read more>>

Mori Trust REIT Buys Sendai Office Block From Sponsor

The manager of Mori Trust REIT said Thursday that it has decided to purchase an office block in Sendai from its sponsor for JPY 1.56 billion ($10 million).

The REIT manager expects to complete the purchase of Sendai MT Building, a 42,942 square metre (462,224 square foot) tower in the capital of Japan’s Miyagi prefecture, on 3 March. Read more>>

Japan’s Orix REIT Completes Purchase of Office Block From Fukuoka REIT

Tokyo-listed Fukuoka REIT said Thursday that it has completed the sale of the Tenjin North Front Building in Fukuoka’s Chuo ward to Orix JREIT, after agreeing to the deal in August of last year.

Orix JREIT paid JPY 1.59 billion ($11 million) to acquire the eight-storey office block after an independent appraisal had estimated the property’s value at JPY 5.2 billion. Read more>>

Evergrande Liquidators Ask Court Help to Streamline Liquidation

Liquidators of China Evergrande, the world’s most indebted builder, sought guidance from a Hong Kong court Thursday on whether bondholders can be part of a committee that would streamline the company’s winding-up process.

During a marathon court hearing before the High Court’s Judge Linda Chan, legal representatives of the liquidators and bondholders discussed the possible criteria to be used to determine eligibility for membership of a committee of inspection. Much of the hearing focused on the issue of the bondholders’ eligibility to join. Read more>>

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