A Microsoft data centre in Cheyenne, Wyoming
Microsoft leads Mingtiandi’s headline roundup today as the tech giant plans to spend an unprecedented sum on its cloud and AI infrastructure in Japan. Blackstone also makes the list as it looks to borrow more than $1 billion against its own investments to free up cash, and Singapore’s CDL offers unsold Sentosa units at 40 percent below their 2010 launch price.
Microsoft to Invest $2.9B on Japan Data Centres
Microsoft said Tuesday that it would invest $2.9 billion over two years to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in Japan, the latest in a series of overseas expansions by large tech firms to support the development of artificial intelligence.
The investment — the company’s largest in the 46 years of its operations in the country — will also go towards skilling 3 million people in AI and setting up a Microsoft Research Asia lab in Tokyo. Read more>>
Blackstone Plans to Borrow $1B Against Its Own Investments to Free Up Cash
Blackstone intends to borrow more than $1 billion against investments in an older private equity fund as a once-unorthodox form of lending gains traction among the biggest money managers.
The firm has explored borrowing on a so-called net-asset-value loan backed by deals in its $18 billion flagship private equity fund that debuted in 2016, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Read more>>
CDL Markets Unsold Sentosa Units at 40% Below 2010 Launch Price
Cityview Place Holdings, a unit of City Developments Ltd, will be selling 58 units of The Residences at W Singapore Sentosa Cove this month.
A representative of Cityview Place said the units were “specially curated” and put up for sale at “an attractive price for a limited period”. Prices start at S$2.1 million ($1.5 million) for a two-bedroom unit and go up to S$3.5 million for a four-bedder. Read more>>
China Insurer Ping An’s Trust Arm Misses Payment Over Property Downturn
A trust unit of Ping An Insurance has acknowledged its failure to make an overdue payment on a product invested in a project by a Hong Kong-listed Chinese developer, signalling that the country’s real estate downturn is taking a toll on the broader financial sector.
Ping An Trust on Wednesday said it had delayed payment on a product called Fu Ning No.615 because “the overall property downturn” had impacted its ability to do so, according to an announcement made on its public WeChat. Read more>>
Singapore’s Centurion Sets Up Hong Kong Student Housing JV
Accommodation assets operator Centurion Corporation on Tuesday said its wholly owned subsidiary Centurion Overseas Investments has established a 60 percent-owned unit, Centurion-Lionrock (HK), to set up a student housing project in Hong Kong.
This marks Centurion’s first foray into the Hong Kong market, where it intends to refurbish a leased property into 66 bed facility for students and other tenants, the company said in a filing to the Singapore bourse. Read more>>
Carlyle’s Rubenstein Says US Commercial Real Estate Undervalued
The US commercial real estate market is undervalued relative to other sectors amid elevated interest rates, while Big Tech stocks could take a breather after record-setting rallies, said David Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chairman of The Carlyle Group.
“(The US) commercial real estate certainly seems undervalued given the effects of high interest rates on real estate in recent years,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Korea Economic Daily. Read more>>
Beijing Retail Rents Jump by Most Since 2019 as Office Remains Under Pressure
Beijing’s commercial real estate market recovered partially in the first quarter of 2024 and is gearing up for further stabilisation this year as a strong rebound in consumption and policy support combine to drive demand for leasing and investment, analysts said.
In the retail market, rents in urban Beijing rose 1.3 percent on a quarterly basis in the first three months of the year, marking the fastest growth in this segment since 2019, according to a report published Tuesday by JLL. Read more>>
Philippines’s SM Targets 100-Mall Portfolio by 2027
The SM Group is fortifying its dominance in the country’s retail industry with plans to open 15 new shopping malls over a four-year period, on its way to hitting the century mark by end 2027.
Sy-led integrated property developer SM Prime Holdings Inc is targeting to have a portfolio of 100 malls in the country by the end of 2027. Read more>>
Tune in again soon for more real estate news and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on X, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
Leave a Reply