Fosun Said Reviving $1B Sale of Hong Kong’s Peak Re and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Shanghai’s Fosun leads today’s headline roundup with a report that the conglomerate plans to put Hong Kong-based Peak Reinsurance back on the market after an earlier attempt fizzled. Also making the list, Manulife US REIT’s distributable income drops 13.3 percent and Frasers Property Australia reviews the future of one of its projects in Brisbane.

Fosun Is Said to Revive $1B Sale of Hong Kong’s Peak Re

Fosun International has revived a plan to sell Hong Kong-based Peak Reinsurance after failing on a previous attempt, according to people familiar with the matter.

BNP Paribas is helping the Chinese conglomerate find a buyer for its majority stake in the business, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters. Fosun is potentially seeking a valuation of about $1 billion for the company known as Peak Re, the people said. Read more>>

Manulife US REIT H2 Loss Narrows; Distributable Income Falls 13.3%

Like in the previous half-year period, no distribution was declared for Manulife US REIT’s second half ended December 2023, as the Singapore-listed trust’s manager will be halting distributions until the end of 2025.

On Thursday, Manulife US REIT’s manager reported a net loss of $132.3 million for the half, narrowing from the year-earlier net loss of $192.5 million. Read more>>

Frasers to Review Future of Brisbane Residential Project

Frasers Property Australia is reviewing the future of one of its build-to-sell projects in the heart of Brisbane, in light of construction cost blowouts and builder shortages.

There are no plans in place to begin construction of the Singapore-based developer’s proposed 141-dwelling project at Newstead, despite approvals being given last year. Read more>>

China Replaces Head of Securities Regulator After Stock Market Meltdown

China has replaced the head of its securities regulator, as public anger over the meltdown in the stock market grows.

Wu Qing, a banking veteran and most recently the deputy party secretary of Shanghai, was named as chairman and party secretary of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, replacing Yi Huiman, who assumed the role in January 2019, according to a state news agency Xinhua report on Wednesday. Read more>>

Digital Core REIT’s Private Placement Closes at $0.625; Upsizes to Raise $120M

Digital Core REIT issued 192 million new units at an issue price of $0.625 per unit on Thursday, at the top end of the $0.60-to-$0.625 range proposed the day before.

The manager noted that the issue size was enlarged to $120 million, of which about $75 million, or 62.5 percent of the gross proceeds, will be used to fund potential acquisitions. Read more>>

Singapore Led APAC Commercial Property Markets in Q4: Knight Frank

Singapore’s commercial real estate market grew 462 percent on a quarterly basis in the last three months of 2023, clocking $4.1 billion in transactions, according to Knight Frank.

The showing surpassed the average quarterly increase of $2.5 billion recorded across key Asia Pacific markets last quarter. As a result, Singapore took the top spot in terms of commercial real estate investment growth in the region, said Christine Li, APAC head of research at Knight Frank. Read more>>

Japan Investors Now Leading Foreign Players in Australian Real Estate

Foreign direct investment in Australian real estate had a taste of the late 1980s to it in 2023 as Japanese investors poured funds into the sector, buoyed by the East Asian country’s relatively low interest rates and the attractiveness of Australia’s build-to-rent sector.

The latest CBRE Australia Capital Flows report found that Japanese buyers acquired more than A$2 billion ($1.3 billion) in Australian real estate assets last year, well up on the A$140 million invested in 2022. Read more>>

China Property Defaults Won’t Stop Banks Lending to Developers: Goldman

China’s property downturn and recent slew of defaults are unlikely to rattle overseas creditors or deter domestic banks from channelling resources towards cash-strapped developers, according to Goldman Sachs.

The share of China’s high-yield property bonds in the Asian market has declined by over 40 percent in the past three years to account for less than 6.5 percent of the total market value, the US bank said in a report on Tuesday. That number was 50 percent at the end of 2020. Read more>>

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