Thomas Kwok is returning to work nine months after getting out of prison
A disgraced property tycoon leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of real estate headlines today with the news that, nine months after completing a prison sentence for bribery, the real estate mogul is returning to the family business.
In other news around the region, employees of a former Softbank-backed hotel chain have raised doubts about the health of the business, while sales growth of the top 100 developers in mainland China slides to 6.5 percent. Elsewhere, DBS forecasts a rise in developer returns in one island city-state.
Thomas Kwok Returns to Sun Hung Kai after Prison Sentence
Disgraced Hong Kong property tycoon Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong is returning to his family business empire, nine months after completing a jail term for a 2014 bribery scandal involving one of the city’s highest public officials.
Kwok, 67, has been appointed as a senior director at Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency, a unit of Hong Kong’s largest developer Sun Hung Kai Properties, according to an internal announcement to group employees on Thursday. Read more>>
Softbank’s Oyo Said Using Unlicensed Hotels to Speed Growth
Oyo, a start-up that offers budget hotel rooms, has grown into one of India’s most valuable private companies and aims to be the world’s largest hotel chain by 2023.
But at least part of Oyo’s rise in India was built on practices that raise questions about the health of its business, according to financial filings, court documents and interviews with 20 current and former employees, as well as others familiar with the start-up’s operations. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the company. Read more>>
Singapore Private Home Prices Moderate Amid Apartment Glut
Private home prices in Singapore rose just 0.3 percent in the final three months of 2019, further evidence that government cooling measures levied in mid 2018 have taken the heat out of the city-state’s residential real estate market.
The rise compared with a 1.3 percent increase in the previous quarter, according to a flash estimate by Urban Redevelopment Authority released Thursday. For all of 2019, apartment prices on the island increased 2.5 percent, well below a jump of 7.9 percent in 2018. Read more
Top 100 Mainland Developers’ Sales Growth Drops to 6.5%
Cumulative sales of China’s top 100 property developers, calculated based on their respective stakes held in real estate projects, grew 6.5 percent last year, a figure far below the 40.5 percent in 2017 and 2018’s 35.1 percent.
Frequent reports cropped up in the second half of developers slashing prices to keep payments rolling in, noted Xu Xiaole, chief market analyst at the research institute of online real estate broker Beike Zhaofang, adding market volumes correspondingly declined steadily for seven months from last April to October. Read more>>
JD.com Opens 24/7 Store Chain 7Fresh Life in Beijing
The newly opened 7Fresh Life is located in the Huilongguan residential area in northern Beijing – one of the largest residential neighbourhoods in Asia.
7Fresh Life is a combination of community restaurant, fresh food store and convenience store, providing more than 3,000 different selected quality fresh items of produce, daily groceries and also ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat food, equipped with an in-store dining area. Read more>>
CDL Hospitality Trusts’ Hotel Deals ‘Not Prejudicial’ to Security Holders’ Interests
CDL Hospitality Trusts’ two proposed hotel transactions are both on normal commercial terms, according to independent financial adviser Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance.
The proposed redevelopment of Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay as well as the potential acquisition of W Singapore in Sentosa Cove are “not prejudicial” to the interests of CDL Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust, CDL Hospitality Business Trust or the minority securityholders, the adviser said. Read more>>
Dalian Wanda to Reduce Funding for Football Club
Superstar soccer manager Rafael Benitez, who made an unlikely move to China last summer to take charge of the Dalian Yifang club, may be learning the fundamental lesson of Chinese business: Real estate runs the show.
After a round of media speculation, property giant Dalian Wanda announced on New Year’s Day that while the company would continue to invest in soccer in Dalian, a port city in the country’s northeast, it would no longer invest in Dalian Yifang as it had in the past. Read more>>
DBS Forecasts Rise In 2020-2021 Sinapore Developer Returns
Among key trends in 2020, Singapore’s developers are projected to deliver strong return on equity for fiscal 2020-2021. This comes on the back of recent merger and acquisitions, as well as continued asset recycling activities, DBS Group Research said in an industry note on Thursday.
With the M&A deals contributing from 2020 onwards, the brokerage is anticipating an improvement in ROEs. Asset recycling activities, meanwhile, will raise net asset value. Read more>>
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