Samsung Unit Pays $656M for Seoul Office Asset and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Leading today’s roundup, the real estate investment arm of Samsung Life Insurance has scooped up a twin-tower office complex in downtown Seoul, paying a record price per square metre for a commercial building in the city. Meanwhile in Sydney, Dalian Wanda Group’s overseas real estate ambitions are literally going up in flames, while China’s Belt and Road is hitting a speed bump in Canada. All this and there’s more property news out of China and Thailand below, if you just keep reading.

Samsung SRA Buys Seoul Office Complex for $656M

Samsung SRA Asset Management has bought an office complex, known as the K-Twin Towers, in South Korea’s capital for around KRW713bn ($656 million).

Samsung SRA paid around KRW8.5m per square metre – the highest price ever paid for a commercial building in Seoul. Young W Chai, Samsung SRA’s senior managing director and CIO, told IPE Real Assets, that the acquisition was finalised yesterday. Read more>>

Wanda’s Sydney Mega-Project Catches Fire

A fire engulfed a luxury Sydney property development overlooking the harbor bridge on Tuesday, just two weeks after China’s Dalian Wanda Group Co. agreed to sell the site.

Flames leaped up a building that’s being demolished at the One Circular Quay site where a residential and hotel development is under construction. Authorities closed the nearby railway station, cordoned off several roads in the central business district and evacuated neighboring offices. Read more>>

Fosun To Buy Majority Stake in French Fashion Label Lanvin

Chinese conglomerate Fosun is set to acquire a majority stake in France’s oldest surviving couture label Lanvin, as the fashion house faces a cash crunch following a slump in sales, sources close to the matter said on Monday.

Fosun, which owns French leisure group Club Med and a stake in Italy luxury menswear firm Caruso, had been vying with Qatari investment fund Mayhoola, the owner of Italy’s Valentino, for control of Lanvin. Fosun would reportedly invest more than 100 million euros ($122.68 million) in Lanvin, which is 75 percent controlled by Taiwan-based media magnate Shaw-Lan Wang, as part of the deal, industry. Wang would retain a minority stake in the business. Read more>>

CCCC Takeover of Aecon Delayed for National Security Review

The $1.5-billion takeover of Canadian construction company Aecon Group Inc. by a division of a Chinese state-owned company has been pushed back, because the federal government is conducting a national security review of the deal.

Aecon announced the delay Monday, prior to the opening of stock markets. The company said the outside date for completing the takeover plan with CCCC International Holding Ltd., has been pushed back to March 30 from the original date of February 23. Read more>>

Alibaba Invests $865M in China’s #2 Home Furnishing Chain

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will invest around RMB5.45 billion ($865 million) for a 15 percent strategic stake in Beijing Easyhome Furnishing Chain Store Group Co., Ltd. as part of its “New Retail” business model, the company announced Sunday.

The investment is part of a strategic investment worth a total of RMB13 billion ($2.05 billion) in Easyhome from investors also including Yunfeng Capital, an investment fund co-founded by Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma, Taikang Insurance Group Inc., and private equity firm Harvest Capital. Read more>>

AI Firm Iflytek To Develop High-Tech Park in Chongqing

Leading Chinese intelligent voice firm Iflytek Co. will spearhead the development of a new technology park in the western municipality of Chongqing, which is set to become a hotbed of smart sector activity.

The Anhui-based artificial intelligence will be the main resident at China Smart Valley Technology Park, which aims to attract smart technology clusters worth some RMB 200 billion ($31.78 billion) by 2025, the firm’s vice-president Xu Yulin said at a press briefing. Read more>>

Thai Developer Plans $476M Mixed-Use Project in Bangkok

Stock Exchange of Thailand-listed developer Country Group Development Plc (CGD) plans to launch a new mixed-use project worth over 15 billion baht ($476 million) in the Rama III area of Bangkok.

Chief executive Ben Taechaubol said the new project will be located on a 23-rai plot on the Industrial Ring Road near Rama III Road, which the company acquired last December for 215,000 baht per square wah. Project development is scheduled to start next year. Read more>>

Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.