Shopee Parent Struggles to Scale Back in Singapore and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Shopee parent Sea Ltd appears to be giving up its struggle to find a replacement tenant to take over its 10-year lease in a CapitaLand business park as it scales back its office space, with that story leading Mingtiandi’s headline roundup today. Also in the news, Hong Kong developers Hysan and Sino Land predict more challenges in 2024 and the Shanghai bourse flags developer R&F for twice failing to issue financial reports on time.

Shopee Parent Unable to Find Replacement Tenant in Science Park

Sea Ltd, the parent company of e-commerce platform Shopee, looks to be consolidating its Singapore footprint into two main buildings — Rochester Commons and 5 Science Park Drive — from the current four main premises it leases at One North and Singapore Science Park.

The Business Times had reported in November 2022 that Sea was seeking a replacement tenant for the roughly 200,000 square feet (18,580 square metres) of office space it had leased from CapitaLand Development in Rochester Commons near the Buona Vista MRT interchange station. Word in the market is that Sea decided last year to stop looking for a replacement tenant for that space. The group’s lease in the development is said to be for about 10 years. Read more>>

Sino Land, Hysan Expect 2023 ‘Uncertainties’ to Continue

Sino Land and Hysan Development, two major Hong Kong developers, expect “uncertainties” to continue to affect the city’s real estate market, they said in their latest financial reports on Thursday.

Sino Land said that its profit in the July-to-December period last year — the first six months of its financial year — rose 6.5 percent to HK$2.6 billion ($332 million) even as revenue fell by about 23 percent to HK$4.92 billion. Its property sales jumped 70 percent to HK$6.63 billion. Read more>>

Guangzhou R&F Latest Builder Censured for Delayed Disclosures

R&F Properties became this year’s latest Chinese developer to have been publicly criticised by stock exchanges for failure to disclose their financial reports.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday released a public notice condemning R&F for failing to disclose earnings reports on time twice, affecting the reasonable expectation of bondholders to obtain important information about the company’s operating performance in the period. Read more>>

Dealmaking Booms in Japan as Rest of Asia Struggles

Dealmaking is booming in Japan. Management buyouts are on the rise. The stock market is nearing an all-time high, giving companies more scope for acquisitions. And the government and investors are pressuring companies to bolster growth. All of this is adding up to a wave of deals in the country.

“This can be a year that we will remember as the dawning year of Japan’s M&A era,” said Akira Kiyota, head of global mergers and acquisitions at Nomura’s main brokerage subsidiary. “We will likely see significant growth both in the number and volumes of deals.” Read more>>

SGX-Listed REIT Global’s Second-Half DPU Plunges 26.6%

Europe-focused IREIT Global reported Thursday a 26.6 percent decline in distribution per unit for the second half, on the back of lower income to be distributed and a larger unit base.

The Singapore-listed trust’s DPU for the six months ended 31 December fell to €0.0094 ($0.010) from €0.0128 in the prior-year period. Meanwhile, income to be distributed fell 13.5 percent in the second half to €12.8 million ($13.8 million). Read more>>

China’s Sunshine 100 Assessing Impact of Liquidation of Controlling Shareholder

Embattled mainland Chinese developer Sunshine 100 is evaluating the impact of a winding-up order for its controlling shareholder, whose beneficiaries include its chairman and executive director, according to a filing with the Hong Kong exchange.

Sunshine 100 said it had recently been informed of the winding-up order, issued by a Hong Kong court dated 17 January, against Joywise Holdings, which holds 64.77 percent of the developer’s shares. Read more>>

Mainland Builder Jinke Property Files for Reorganisation, Shares Rise

Embattled Jinke Property Group said it had applied to a court for a company reorganisation to resolve its debt risks, becoming one of the first well-known Chinese developers to take such a route to try to restore its financial standing.

Shenzhen-listed shares of Jinke, the country’s 50th-largest developer by sales, rose 2.5 percent by midday on Thursday after jumping as much as 9.4 percent earlier in the session. Its Hong Kong-listed property management unit, Jinke Smart Services, slipped 1.2 percent. Read more>>

China Property Foreclosures Surge as Growth Slows

The number of foreclosed properties for sale in China rose at a faster pace in January, in a sign of the country’s continued economic slowdown.

New listings of foreclosed properties nationwide rose 48 percent in January from a year earlier, compared with 37 percent in 2023, according to a report by real estate agency China Index Holdings published Thursday. The 100,400 properties listed for sale last month include residential, commercial and industrial real estate. Read more>>

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