Mubadala Aims to Double Asia Exposure and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Mubadala Investment leads Mingtiandi’s headline roundup today with a goal to double its exposure to Asia to 25 percent of total assets. Also making the news, Bank of America cuts more than 20 investment banking positions in Hong Kong and a block of 31 freehold units in a commercial building on Singapore’s Orchard Road are on the market for $209 million.

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Aims to Double Exposure to Asia by End of Decade

Mubadala Investment is seeking to roughly double its exposure to Asia, joining a bevy of Abu Dhabi-based entities eyeing opportunities in faster-growing emerging markets.

Across Mubadala, “out of our roughly $300 billion in assets under management, only 12 percent is in Asia today and we want to move that number closer to 25 percent” by as soon as 2030, Camilla Macapili Languille, head of the fund’s life sciences and healthcare investments division, told Bloomberg. Read more>>

Bank of America Cuts More Than 20 Dealmaker Jobs in Hong Kong

Bank of America cut more than 20 investment banking jobs in Hong Kong on Tuesday as dealmaking in China grinds to a halt, people familiar with the matter said.

A handful of managing directors were let go in the latest round of cuts, including equity capital markets banker Sunil Khaitan and Winnie Ng, who covers Hong Kong and is co-head of Asia real estate, gaming and lodging, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters. Khaitan declined to comment, while Ng didn’t respond to requests seeking comment. Read more>>

Block of 31 Units in Orchard Road Commercial Building for Sale at $209M

Thirty-one freehold commercial units at Singapore’s Midpoint Orchard are up for sale, at a guide price of S$281 million ($209 million).

The strata-titled units are being sold collectively by individual owners and companies, Huttons Asia, which has been appointed for the sale, said Tuesday. Read more>>

Hong Kong Picks Financier Angel Chia to Head City’s Wealth Academy

Angel Chia, who has spent two decades in stockbroking and working with family offices, has been appointed as the executive director of the Hong Kong Academy for Wealth Legacy to spearhead the city’s bid to be the regional hub for multigenerational fortunes.

Chia, the former chief executive of EAM SingAlliance (Hong Kong), has spent more than 20 years in the financial industry, from securities dealing to asset management in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and New York. Read more>>

Retail Podium in Singapore Industrial Block on the Market for $63M

The retail podium at CT Hub, an industrial development on Singapore’s Kallang Avenue, is up for sale via an expression of interest exercise with a guide price of S$85 million ($63 million).

Spanning two floors, it comprises 49 strata units with a combined strata area of 51,028 square feet (4,740 square metres). The guide price works out to S$1,666 per square foot on the strata area. Read more>>

Cantor Fitzgeral CEO Predicts $1T in Commercial Real Estate Defaults

Rising interest rates, the remote work trend and the dominance of e-commerce sellers have combined to hammer the commercial real estate market over the past few years. Sky-high office and retail space vacancies are plaguing owners in this new environment, rents are plummeting, and borrowing costs have soared.

As a result, US commercial real estate prices have fallen 11 percent since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in March 2022, the IMF reported last week, the worst decline in over 50 years. The outlook for the sector is now so bleak that Cantor Fitzgerald’s billionaire chairman and CEO, Howard Lutnick, is predicting between $700 billion and $1 trillion in defaults over the next two years unless interest rates fall quickly — and he sees that as unlikely. Read more>>

Suntec REIT Sees 10.2% Drop in H2 Distributions

Suntec REIT’s distribution per unit for the second half of 2023 ended in December 2023 fell by 10.2 percent to 3.659 cents, compared with 4.074 cents the year before.

Gross revenue was up 6.6 percent to $238.4 million for the period, which was offset mainly by 29.1 percent higher property expenses and 57.1 percent lower interest income, the REIT’s manager said on 24 January. Read more>>

Removal of Australia ‘Golden Visa’ Scheme for Chinese to Hit Property Market

Australia’s surprise move to scrap a visa programme that allowed wealthy mainland Chinese and Hong Kong property buyers to gain residency is likely to impact its high-end real estate market, according to an analyst.

The scale and extent of the impact, however, remains to be seen, even as half of those who availed visas under the Business Innovation and Investment Programme last year were from the mainland and Hong Kong, said Daniel Ho, co-founder and group managing director of Juwai IQI, which operates a portal with property listings from across the world worth $4 trillion. Read more>>

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