Mingtiandi

Asia real estate and outbound investment news

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Sign Up / Login Logout

Lost your password?
Register
Forgotten Password
Cancel

Register For This Site

A password will be e-mailed to you.

  • Capital Markets
  • Events
    • Mingtiandi 2023 Event Calendar
    • Mingtiandi APAC Residential Forum 2023
    • Mingtiandi Asia Logistics Forum 2023
    • Mingtiandi Hong Kong Focus Forum 2023
    • Mingtiandi APAC Data Centre Forum 2023
    • Mingtiandi Asia Office Strategies Forum 2023
    • Mingtiandi Singapore Focus Forum 2023
    • More Events
  • MTD TV
  • People
  • Logistics
  • Data Centres
  • Asia Outbound
  • Retail
  • Research & Policy
  • Advertise

Blackstone Buys Industrial Building in Hong Kong’s New Territories for $36M

2021/09/07 by Pawara Laothamatas Leave a Comment

Yip's chemical building

Yip’s Chemical Building is just a few blocks from data centre projects by Mapletree and SHKP’s SUNeVision

Following a path to a town near Hong Kong’s border with Shenzhen which has already welcomed traffic from some of the region’s biggest fund managers this year, Blackstone has acquired a six-storey building in Hong Kong’s Fanling area for HK$282.6 million ($36.2 million), according to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The US private equity giant purchased Yip’s Chemical Building at 13 Yip Cheong Street in the investment hotspot as its second major industrial acquisition in Hong Kong this year after purchasing a 10-storey industrial building in Kowloon East for HK$508 million during April. Blackstone representatives declined to comment on this latest deal.

The transaction for the 63,897 square feet (5,936 square metres) asset took place as Hong Kong’s industrial investment activity continued to pick up after reaching HK$6.8 billion in the second quarter, which was an increase of 88 percent over the level recorded during the previous three months, according to CBRE’s Marketview.

While Blackstone has not commented on its intentions for the 1990-vintage shed, the property is located around 3 minutes’ walk from another site in Sheung Shui town which Singapore’s Mapletree Investments said in February it would use for development of a data centre facility after buying the site a month earlier.

In July, Sun Hung Kai Properties’ SUNeVision Holdings data centre unit said that it was leasing a Fanling warehouse from its parent firm and intends to develop a hyperscale data centre in the building. That property at 11 On Chuen Street in Fanling is around four minutes’ walk from Blackstone’s new prize.

Emerging Hotspot

“The disposal is considered to be an opportunity for the group to realise its investment in the target Company and is in line with the Group’s strategic development plan and allows it to streamline its business structure and resources,” Yip’s Chemical chairman Tony Ip Chi Shing said in a statement to the Hong Kong exchange announcing the transaction.

Yip's Chemical chairman Tony Ip Chi Shing

Yip’s Chemical chairman Tony Ip Chi Shing

Occupying a 12,895 square foot site, Yip’s Chemical Building has ground-level clearance heights of about 6.5 metres and ceiling heights of approximately 3.5 metres (11.4 feet) on the upper floors, which could accommodate the 48U racks used in contemporary data centres, which typically stretch over 2.13 metres.

Yip’s Chemical had been headquartered in the building before relocating to Fortis Tower in Wan Chai. The chemical trading firm had first put its facility on the market in 2015 through a tender managed by joint-sole agents Savills and Colliers. The tender failed to result in a transaction.

The company then made the asset available again in March last year at a reported asking price of HK$250 million, or HK$3,912 per square foot. The sale of the building was announced last month by CBRE after having closed in July.

Industrial Roots

“Fanling has always been perceived as a traditional industrial zone and most of the en-bloc industrial buildings in the area are occupied by logistics operators or utilized as warehouses,” said ​​Jonathan Chau, CBRE Hong Kong’s executive director and head of investment property and private office in the capital markets team.

jonathan chau

CBRE’s Jonathan Chau

Driven by the government’s industrial revitalisation scheme, which encourages redevelopment by charging standardised premiums for land-use modifications, districts such as Kwun Tong and Cheung Sha Wan were renovated into commercial hubs, Chau said.

“Under (these circumstances), genuine warehouse occupiers and end-users tend to move to the traditional industrial zones in the north like Fanling and Tuen Mun to continue their operations,” he added.

Strong Foothold in Asia

In Blackstone’s earnings call in July, its president and chief operating officer, Jonathan Gray, announced that the group had raised more than $5 billion for its second Asia fund and planned to raise a third real estate fund in the region.

That fresh batch of capital was arranged after the Manhattan-based fund manager had earlier this year closed on a $1.1 billion industrial real estate investment in Guangzhou — less than one hour from Hong Kong by high-speed rail.

In June, Blackstone made one of its biggest-ever capital commitments to China real estate by agreeing to buy Soho China, one of the country’s largest developers, for HK$23.7 billion ($3 billion). The deal would give Blackstone rights to the developer’s portfolio of nine office properties in Shanghai and Beijing.

Rising Industrial Demand

As one of the few remaining traditional industrial areas in the city, and with its direct connections to Shenzhen, Fanling is becoming a popular spot for industrial investment.

Aside from Blackstone’s purchase of Yip’s Chemical Building, mainland conglomerate China Resources bought the Mineron Centre from the family of late “Shop King” Tang Shing-Bor for HK$695 million last month.

In February, SilkRoad Property Partners bought Smile Centre, a six-storey cold storage building, for HK$321 million, the fourth industrial addition to the group’s Hong Kong portfolio.

Since last year’s opening of the Heung Yuen Wai Control Point between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Fanling has become one of the main connection hubs for Hong Kong and the mainland’s Greater Bay Area, helping to stimulate industrial transactions in the area, Chau said.

Share this now

  • LinkedIn
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email

Filed Under: Finance Tagged With: Blackstone, CBRE Group, cm-hk, daily-sp, Fanling, Featured, highlight, Hong Kong

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Mingtiandi Delivered

MTD TV

MTD TV Value ADd
Tech, Green Loans Grab Spotlight in Final Session of MTD TV Value-Add Forum
China logistics thumbnail
China REITs Offer Fresh Funding Flexibility for Logistics Developers: MTD TV

More MTD TV Videos>>

People in the News

Terence Li Arch
Asia Real Estate People in the News 2023-05-22
Varun Malik VGAP
Rush Desai’s Varsity Group APAC Hires Former MSCI Exec in Singapore
Kiyohito Motoyama, director of logistics and industrial
Hines Hires Kiyohito Motoyama as Japan Industrial Head, Adds Two Others to Team
Sandeep Mathrani
WeWork Boss Sandeep Mathrani Steps Down, Joins Sycamore Partners

More Industry Professionals>>

People in the News

Asia Real Estate People in the News 2023-05-22

Terence Li Arch

A promotion at a leading Hong Kong real estate fund manager leads this week’s roundup of people moves from around Asia, … Read More>>

Rush Desai’s Varsity Group APAC Hires Former MSCI Exec in Singapore

Varun Malik VGAP

Rush Desai is adding some senior talent to his team at Varsity Group Asia Pacific in Singapore, with the company … Read More>>

Hines Hires Kiyohito Motoyama as Japan Industrial Head, Adds Two Others to Team

Kiyohito Motoyama, director of logistics and industrial

US developer and fund manager Hines has added three new hires to its Japan team, led by Kiyohito Motoyama as director of … Read More>>

WeWork Boss Sandeep Mathrani Steps Down, Joins Sycamore Partners

Sandeep Mathrani

WeWork’s ongoing turnaround will continue without the leadership of chairman and CEO Sandeep Mathrani, who is leaving … Read More>>

More Industry Professionals>>

Latest Stories

John Graham CPPIB
CPPIB Posts 1.3% Annual Return as Real Estate Investments Sustain Losses
5 Churchill Place
Lenders Seize Cheung Kei’s 5 Churchill Place in London After Default
Wang Jianlin Wanda Getty Images
Wanda Seeks to Refinance $275M Debt Facility and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Sponsored Features

Could Real Estate Ecosystems Be Your New Edge?
Data centers: Empowering a Data-Driven World
Singapore skyline
Asia Pacific Capital Markets: 2023 Insights and Priorities

More Sponsored Features>>

Connect with Mingtiandi

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Real Estate News

  • Capital Markets
  • 2022 Event Calendar
  • MTD TV Archives
  • People
  • Logistics
  • Data Centres
  • Asia Outbound
  • Retail

More Mingtiandi

  • About Mingtiandi
  • Contact Mingtiandi
  • Mingtiandi Membership
  • Newsletter Subscription
  • Advertise
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
  • Join the Mingtiandi Team


© 2007-2023 China Advertising Media Ltd (Samoa). All rights reserved.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.