Meitu Founder Pays Premium to Buy Hong Kong Commercial Tower for $84M

Mike Cai Wensheng, the billionaire co-founder of selfie-app Meitu, paid HK$650 million ($84 million) for a commercial property in Tin Hau on Hong Kong Island in a deal that values the Park Aura building at 20 percent above what comparable buildings in the area have sold for.

According to reports, the prominent angel investor said on social media that he plans to use the 53,000 square foot (4,924 square metre) building in the Tin Hau area to create a hub for technology entrepreneurs, with the deal being his first en bloc property acquisition in the city.

In buying the 2020 vintage building from H Development Holdings, Cai notched Hong Kong’s second-largest property purchase of this year, ranking behind only Hongkong Land’s HK$6.3 billion sale last week of space in One Exchange Square in Central to the HKEX. The tech mogul said he had focused more on getting traction behind his incubator idea than the property price, and that he was confident Hong Kong’s real estate prices will rebound, the SCMP reported.

With a fortune estimated by Forbes at $1.1 billion, Cai picked up the property at 54-58 Electric Road at a time when owners of Hong Kong commercial buildings are struggling to attract tenants and pay their lenders, with occupancy in Park Aura reported to be around 40 percent.

Buyer’s Market

At the sale price, which was confirmed to Mingtiandi by people familiar with the transaction, Cai is paying around HK$12,264 per square foot for the Ginza-style commercial building, which include restaurants and other retail outlets in a vertical format.

Golden Wheel Plaza, at 68 Electric Road, sold for HK$511 million in November 2023 at a price of HK$9,833 per square foot and is similar to Park Aura in terms of location, property type, building age and scale, according to Alex Leung at CHFT Advisory and Appraisal in Hong Kong. And prices have come down by around 20 percent since then, according to CHFT’s estimates.

The Fujian-born businessman plans to establish a two-floor cafe and learning spaces, along with shared offices on the lower floors of the Electric Road property, with studios given over to AI and Web3-focused businesses on the remaining storeys, according to local media reports. Property consultancy Colliers represented H Development in the sale of the property with company representatives declining to comment on the transaction.

H Development is also currently marketing 1 Humphreys Avenue in Tsim Sha Tsui, with that 58,591 square foot property having been on the market since 2023, according to agency promotional materials. The developer controlled by father and son Henry and Eric Ng paid a total of around HK$530 million to consolidate ownership of 54-58 Electric Road in 2016 before developing the new property on the site, according to CHFT.

When selecting Park Aura, Cai also had the opportunity to purchase 303 Jaffe Road in Wanchai, a vertical commercial building also known as Konnect, which is being marketed on behalf of receivers for around HK$10,000 per square foot and has uninterrupted harbour views from the upper floors.

The Hedon, a Ginza building on Matheson Street in Causeway Bay is also currently being marketed by Colliers at an asking price of just under HK$13,000 per square foot. within a stone’s throw of Times Square and Lee Gardens at the heart of Causeway Bay’s shopping district.

Like Konnect, Golden Wheel Plaza sold after having been seized by receivers, which may have driven the sales price below prevailing market rates.

Tin Hau Enthusiast

Cai is said to have been encouraged by the recent leasing performance of Golden Wheel Plaza, which is now estimated by brokers active in the market to be 75-80 percent leased after being only around 30 percent occupied at the time of its 2023 sale.

Another plus for Park Aura for its new buyer is the up-and-coming nature of the area, which borders North Point and is a popular location for mainland Chinese and Fujianese in particular.

Nearby projects have also performed well, Wang On’s 101 King’s Road residential project.

The property benefits from occupying a corner site with ample natural light with average floor-to-floor heights of 3.5 metres. Some floors in the building have ceiling heights of up to 4.6 metres, a knowledgeable source told Mingtiandi.

Cai also told the Post that he wanted to create a hub for startups in a more convenient location than Hong Kong’s existing centres in Science Park in the New Territories and Cyberport, at the far west of Hong Kong Island.