Savills Leads Brokerage Wins with $1.2B LG Towers Sale in Beijing Mingtiandi Broker Battle

Despite the market continuing to be quiet across Greater China, Savills’ reported brokering of the RMB 8 Billion ($1.1 billion) sale of LG Group’s Beijing HQ tops Asia’s deal charts this week, with the deal ranking as the biggest transaction in the Chinese capital since February last year.

Office property was also on the menu Down Under where JLL and Colliers International worked together to help SC Capital Partners sell a 26-storey tower in Sydney to Poly Australia for A$270 million ($178 million).

Meanwhile, shophouses in Singapore played a starring role in Mingtiandi’s roundup of brokerage triumphs for the second week running with JLL brokering the sale of the Eu Yan Sang Building to local shophouse specialist 8M Real Estate, as well as helping Phoenix Property Investors sell a row of the colonial-era conservation properties to Aberdeen Standard Investments.

Keep reading for all the details on which brokerages won deals this month, and if your team has capital markets or leasing victories to report, please contact us here at Mingtiandi.

Mainland China

According to market sources, Savills brokered the sale of the LG Twin Towers in Beijing on behalf of South Korean electronics company LG Group. GIC paid RMB 8 billion ($1.1 billion) for the commercial complex in the city’s Guomao central business district, which comprises twin office towers and a retail podium. Based on the development’s total gross floor area of 140,680 square metres (1.5 million square feet), the Singapore sovereign wealth fund purchased the 15 year-old office asset for RMB 56,867 per square metre. Read more>>

Australia

JLL and Colliers International negotiated the sale of 59 Goulburn Street in Sydney’s central business district on behalf of SC Capital Partners’s RECAP fund. Poly Australia purchased the 26-storey office building for A$270 million ($178 million), paying $13,867 per square metre based on the building’s net leasable area of 19,470 square metres (209,573 square feet). SC Capital flipped the property at a mark-up of almost 71 percent just over two and a half years after acquiring it for A$158 million. Read more>>

CBRE and JLL have been appointed by ESR Australia to sell Brisbane’s State Law Building with the price expected to fetch A$275 million. Based on the property’s 25,519 square metres (274,684 square feet) of gross floor area, the sale of the 25-storey office tower at 50 Ann Street could achieve a price of A$10,776 per square metre. According to Mingtiandi sources, ESR’s ownership interest in the property is 25 percent while Goldman Sachs owns the remainder. Read more>>

Singapore

JLL and Colliers brokered the sale of a row of conservation shophouses in Tanjong Pagar for S$54 million ($39 million), taking part in a deal that also saw Singapore property agent Sakal Real Estate Partners introduce Aberdeen Standard Investments as the buyer. ASI purchased the properties at 48 to 56 Peck Seah Street from Hong Kong’s Phoenix Property Investors through its £500 million ($648 million) Global Real Estate Fund. Based on the combined gross floor area of 19,938 square feet (1,852 square metres), the ASI-managed fund paid S$2,708 per square foot for the six shophouses. Read more>>

JLL brokered the sale of the Eu Yan Sang Building in Chinatown for S$54 million on behalf of EU Realty (Singapore), a unit of traditional Chinese medicine company Eu Yan Sang International. 8M Real Estate purchased the three-storey shophouse property at 265 to 271 South Bridge Road for S$2,715 per square foot based on the building’s gross floor area of 19,885 square feet. The 1910-vintage property was designed by Raffles Hotel architect Alfred Bidwell. Read more>>

Knight Frank has been appointed by Indian Overseas Bank as the marketing agent for the sale of a commercial redevelopment project at 64 Cecil Street in downtown Singapore with the owner reportedly asking S$218 million for the plot near Telok Ayer MRT station. Redevelopment of the 9,599 square foot site, which is currently occupied by the six-storey IOB Building, is restricted to 30 storeys. Based on the potential gross floor area of 120,947 square feet, the site is expected to fetch S$1,800 per square foot. Read more>>

Edmund Tie has been appointed as the sole marketing agent for the sale of a pair of industrial buildings at 539 and 543 Yishun Industrial Park A in northern Singapore at a combined asking price of S$29 million. With a combined site area of 143,442 square feet, the two adjoining properties can be redeveloped for light industrial use up to a maximum total gross floor area of 358,605 square feet. The properties can be purchased together or separately. Read more>>

Colliers has been appointed as marketing agent for the sale of two conservation shophouses at 65/67 Neil Road in Tanjong Pagar at a combined asking price of S$15.6 million. Based on the total gross floor area of 5,564 square feet, the properties are expected to fetch S$2,800 per square foot. Read more>>

Colliers has been appointed as marketing agent for a set of three freehold shophouses at 7, 9 and 11 Jasmine Road in Chinatown, along with an adjoining vacant site, at an asking price of S$22.9 million. Zoned for residential use with approval for commercial space on the first storey, the properties can be redeveloped into up to 21,363 square feet of space at the equivalent of around S$1,185 per square foot, inclusive of the development charge. Read more>>

Hong Kong

Colliers has been appointed to broker the collective sale of an 82.7 percent ownership interest in the Hoi Bun Industrial Building at 6 Wing Yip Street in Kwun Tong. Occupying a site area of 32,345 square feet (3,005 square metres), the 15-storey industrial building in Kowloon East can be redeveloped up to 388,000 square feet. Market analysts expect the 82.7 percent interest to fetch around HK$2.6 billion. Read more>>

Research for this story was provided by Li Yanxia and Iris Poon. Mingtiandi’s Broker Battle series is published twice monthly on Tuesdays.