Hong Kong businessman Benny Wu wore out his welcome with Queensland authorities
Australian authorities have stripped a Hong Kong businessman of a stalled Queensland resort project, with that story leading Mingtiandi’s headline roundup today. Also making the news is a bargain-hunting Australian pension fund and Shenzhen’s Kaisa Group wins a reprieve in its Hong Kong liquidation case.
Hong Kong Businessman Benny Wu Stripped of Queensland Island
A far-north Queensland island has been returned to the state government after Hong Kong businessman Benny Wu was stripped of a tourism lease for breaching conditions.
Double Island near Cairns was home to a luxury resort that shut down six years ago. The Queensland resources minister, Scott Stewart, said that after years of trying to get the leaseholder, Benny Wu, to rebuild the decrepit five-star facility and reopen the island, he took the case to the state’s land court. Read more>>
Australia’s $117B Aware Super Hunts More Property Turmoil
Australia’s third-largest pension fund, A$175 billion ($117 billion) Aware Super, is hunting among global real estate assets as it seeks to build on strong investment results from the financial year that ends this week.
Property is an area the firm would like to add to, but there needs to be more signs of value in high-quality office buildings before buying, said Damian Graham, Aware Super’s chief investment officer. His firm is using its recently opened London office as a launch pad to acquire property assets around the world. Read more>>
Kaisa Avoids Liquidation for Now But Restructuring Plan Needed
A Hong Kong court has given Chinese developer Kaisa Group Holdings seven more weeks to work on its debt restructuring plan in order to avoid being liquidated, but also warned this might be the company’s last chance.
The amount of debt being restructured amounts to nearly $13 billion, the homebuilder’s legal representative said at Monday’s hearing. While Kaisa and a key creditor group agreed on a four-week adjournment, Judge Peter Ng decided to give the cash-strapped developer more time, adjourning the winding-up case until 12 August. Read more>>
Microsoft, Macquarie Pump Billions Into Power-Hungry Data Centres
Global heavyweights Microsoft and Macquarie Technology Group are joining with Goodman Group to plough billions of dollars into new data centre developments.
Microsoft is committing A$5 billion ($3.3 billion) to expand its infrastructure footprint in what the company called its single largest Australian investment in its 40-year history in the country. Read more>>
Equinix Opens Fourth Osaka Data Centre, Will Invest $160M in Oz Expansion
Equinix has launched its fourth data centre in Osaka, and the US company is also set to invest A$240 million ($160 million) in expanding its data centre presence in Australia to meet AI-related demand.
Equinix has opened its hyperscale xScale data centre, OS4x, in Osaka. The data centre will expand Equinix’s capacity in the city to meet the needs of cloud service providers and is a large-scale facility with high power density per rack and high customizability. Read more>>
IREIT Global Loses Main Tenant of Berlin Campus
A long-term main tenant of IREIT Global’s Berlin Campus will not be extending its lease, which is due to expire on 31 December 2024.
On Monday, the Singapore-listed REIT’s manager said the tenant’s lease contributed about 20 percent of the trust’s total gross income. Read more>>
India’s Prestige Estates to Raise $599M, Plans to Monetise Hotel Business
Prestige Estates Projects plans to raise INR 50 billion ($598.8 million) from institutional investors to bolster its hospitality business.
On Friday, the board approved a proposal to raise the funds through a public sale of shares to institutional investors or other permissible modes, it said in a BSE filing. The board also cleared another plan to monetise the hospitality business and established a subcommittee to supervise the process. Read more>>
Mainland Chinese Retailers Struggle to Survive Hong Kong’s Sky-high Rents
A tide of mainland Chinese retail brands expanding in Hong Kong appears to have ebbed, with several food and beverage chains ending their tenancies as their businesses have come under intense pressure. Newcomers need to think hard about the locations they select and how best to cater to local tastes to survive sky-high rents and fierce competition, analysts and industry insiders say.
LMM (Ling Meng Meng), a lemon tea brand, closed its first shop in Hong Kong last week, less than a year after opening it. The 300 square feet (27.8 square metres) shop in Mong Kok’s Dundas Street, had been costing LMM HK$70,000 ($8,968) per month. Read more>>
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