Son of Former Changi Boss Charged in Maid Case and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

The saga of a now-retired Changi Airport boss, his bankrupt son and the family’s domestic helper has entered a new chapter as a Singapore court charges the Karl Liew with having made false accusations against Indonesian Parti Liyani.

Also in today’s fresh helping of regional headlines Seoul emerges as top dog in terms of APAC office deals, TikTok parent ByteDance is settling in at its new Beijing digs, and Singapore is searching for a path to greener data centres.

Son of Former Changi Airport Chairman Charged in Maid Case

Karl Liew Kai Lung was charged with two offences on Thursday for giving allegedly false statements in the criminal case of the Indonesian maid formerly employed by his father, Liew Mun Leong, who was the chairman of Changi Airport Group (CAG).

The 43-year-old bankrupt has been accused of furnishing false information to the police during investigations into the alleged theft by Parti Liyani. He allegedly lied to a police officer on Dec 10, 2016 that Ms Parti had packed into her boxes 119 pieces of clothing that belonged to him. Read more>> 

Seoul Leads APAC With $9B in 2020 Office Deals

Seoul has emerged as Asia’s top market for office and retail property deals after the South Korean capital averted a lockdown by controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Office transactions totalled almost $9 billion in Seoul this year through September, outpacing $7.7 billion in Tokyo, the region’s former leader, and Shanghai, with $4.8 billion, according to Real Capital Analytics. Seoul also ranked first in retail real estate transactions, followed by Guangzhou and Tokyo. Read more>>

ByteDance Moves Into New Beijing HQ

TikTok parent ByteDance Technology started using an office building in Beijing’s northwestern Haidian district tech corridor yesterday into which thousands of its employees have already moved. The firm bought the property, its first self-owned office building, for around RMB 5 billion ($747.2 million) and will soon buy more such properties in the Chinese capital for an additional RMB 10 billion.

The building is a rare low-density office building near Beijing’s North Third Ring Road, China News Service reported today. The edifice, which covers about 23,000 square metres (247,570 square feet), has four above-ground stories and three below, and ByteDance bought the structure last year, public data show. Read more>>

Mainland Developer Jinke Aims for $816M Services IPO

Jinke Smart Services Group, a property management company spun off from Shenzhen-listed Jinke Property Group, is seeking to raise up to $816 million from a Hong Kong initial public offering, joining over a dozen firms from the sector that have tapped the city’s capital market this year.

The company is selling 132.9 million shares, or 21 percent of its share capital, at a range of HK$41.80 ($5.40) and HK$47.60 per share, with an overallotment option of up to 19.9 million additional shares to cover strong demand from investors, according to its prospectus. Read more>>

GIC-Backed SpaceDC Opens New Data Centre in Indonesia

Singapore-based SpaceDC announced today that it had opened its inaugural data centre facility, JAK2, in Jakarta, aiming to tap into Indonesia’s growing digital market.

“With Indonesia having Southeast Asia’s largest population, and the region’s largest digital economy, it only made sense for us to open our first facility in this market,” CEO Darren Hawkins told KrASIA. He deemed the country in a strong position to lead the region as a digital economic powerhouse. Read more>>

Stanley Black & Decker Shuts Shenzhen Factory as Costs Soar

The Shenzhen factory of Stanley Black & Decker, a major US tool and household hardware maker, has closed up shop and laid off all its 1,000 workers after 25 years of operations, reflecting the changing business environment in the world’s second-biggest economy.

Last week’s closure of the American company’s wholly owned China unit, Stanley Black & Decker Precision Manufacturing (Shenzhen), marked the latest retreat by a manufacturing business from Shenzhen amid rising labour and land costs in the booming town just across the mainland border from Hong Kong. Read more>>

CapitaLand Leads SG Group Exploring Green Data Centres

Capitaland, SP Group and Sembcorp Industries have tied up to jointly study the use of integrated energy solutions to power data centres.

The integrated energy solutions will potentially include a combination of solar photovoltaic, green hydrogen and energy storage among others, the companies said on Thursday. These will be further enhanced with smart technologies to increase energy efficiency and effectiveness, they added. Read more>>

CMC’s Fancl Asia Sale Attracts Carlyle, MBK Interest

The sale of Japanese skincare brand Fancl’s Asia business outside its home country has drawn preliminary interest from buyout firms including Carlyle Group Inc and MBK Partners, people with knowledge of the matter said.

CMC Holdings Ltd, which is selling the business, has asked for first-round indicative bids as soon as the end of November, the people said. Hillhouse Capital and Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd are also studying the business, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Read more>>

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