Tencent Joins Softbank in $2.4B Investment in China's Beike

Beike has secured $2.4 bil in its latest funding round

A Chinese property listings portal leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines today with news that Tencent and Hillhouse joined a $2.4 billion funding round led by a $500 million commitment from Softbank.

In other stories from around the region, Norway’s sovereign fund has spent $740 million to buy part of an office owned by a Japanese real estate giant, while the biggest coffee chain in the world expects its mainland China sales to halve during the second quarter of this year.

Elsewhere, a Singapore property group is giving 1,000 rental rebates to tenants contending with a fall in sales as a result of the COVID-19 scare.

Tencent Joins Softbank in $2.4B Funding Round for Beike

Online property listings platform Beike, a Zillow-like real estate listing app, has completed a series D round of financing.

Investors include SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, and Sequoia Capital, with a total financing amount of more than $2.4 billion. Read more>>

Norwegian Fund Buys $740M Piece of Mitsubishi Tokyo HQ

Norway’s massive sovereign wealth fund will acquire part of Mitsubishi Estate’s Tokyo headquarters tower in a JPY 79.7 billion ($742 million) deal with the property developer.

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global will own a section of the Otemachi Park Building office complex. The agreement announced Thursday will not apply to the third through sixth floors, which house Mitsubishi Estate’s home office. Read more>>

Starbucks Expects Quarterly Sales in China to Halve

Starbucks is expecting significantly lower sales in its Chinese stores in the second quarter because of the coronavirus.

In February, sales at stores open at least 13 months in China dropped 78 percent compared to the prior year because of temporary store closures, reduced hours of operation and a sharp decline in customer traffic, CEO Kevin Johnson and CFO Patrick Grismer noted in a letter to stakeholders. Read more>>

Singapore HDB Home Prices Rise 0.7% in February

The Housing Board resale market remained robust in February despite experiencing a seasonal dip from January.

Fewer HDB flats changed hands in February compared with January, as prices inched up by 0.7 percent. Read more>>

CapitaLand Giving 1,000 Tenants Rental Rebates

Mall operator CapitaLand will be giving 1,000 tenants rental rebates over two months to help stores tide through the current retail storm caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter sent to tenants on 4 March, the landlord said it had reviewed February sales and footfall data and will be granting a 50 percent rebate on the fixed components of their one-month gross rent. This will be disbursed in two tranches of 25 percent in April and May. Read more>>

Wharf REIC Chairman Says Hong Kong Outlook “Dire”

Hong Kong shopping centre and hotel operator Wharf Real Estate Investment Company (Wharf REIC) said on Thursday the outlook for the city’s economy was “pathetic” and “dire” in the near term.

“We feel Hong Kong is pathetic in the short term. It could take three months, six months or even nine months [for the Covid-19 outbreak to subside and the city’s economy to bottom out], but we have no idea,” Stephen Ng, the company’s chairman and managing director, said during its annual results briefing. Read more>>

Hong Kong Home Saled Surge After Rate Cut

Flat owners and property agents in Hong Kong are taking advantage of the surprise interest-rate cut this week to speed up sales in a market hobbling through the coronavirus outbreak.

At least five home transactions were recorded at discounts ranging from 2.7 percent to 6.25 percent immediately after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority lowered its base lending rate on Wednesday in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve’s first emergency rate cut since the 2008 global financial crisis. Read more>>

Singapore Retail Sales Fall 5.3% in January

Singapore retail sales continued to weaken in January, down 5.3 percent year-on-year as motor sales remained a major drag, according to Department of Statistics data on Thursday.

This deepened from a 3.4 percent fall in December. Excluding motor vehicles, however, retail sales were up 0.6 percent year-on-year, improving from 0.1 percent in December. Read more>>

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