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 2022 Event Calendar
    • APAC Residential Forum 2022
    • Asia Logistics Forum 2022
    • Asia REIT Forum 2022
    • APAC Data Centre Forum 2022
    • Singapore Focus Forum 2022
    • Office Strategies Forum 2022
    • More Events
  • MTD TV
  • People
  • Logistics
  • Data Centres
  • Asia Outbound
  • Retail
  • Research & Policy
  • Advertise

Goldin Forfeits HK$25M Deposit to Walk Away From Record Kai Tak Land Purchase

2019/06/11 by Michael Cole Leave a Comment

Kai Tak runway

Goldin practised a HK$25 mil touch-and-go in Kai Tak

Goldin Financial is abandoning its HK$11.1 billion ($1.41 billion) purchase of a commercial site on the former runway of Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport, citing the city’s economic and social instability as motivation for its decision.

The aborted land buy will cause the Hong Kong-listed property and finance firm to forfeit a HK$25 million deposit which it paid on the land, just one month after besting some of the city’s biggest developers to make the largest bid ever for a site in the former airport area.

In a statement to the exchange, Goldin was explicit in its explanation that the company’s directors had made their decision to walk away from the plot purchase due to changes in market conditions, with the company’s chairman, Pan Sutong dismissing reports that his firm lacked the financing to complete the land purchase in a call with the media.

Pan Dismisses Reports That Goldin Lacks Cash for Land Buy

Goldin, which is one of the biggest developers in Tianjin but a role player in the Hong Kong market, surprised many analysts when it outbid Hong Kong heavyweights Sun Hung Kai Properties, Wheelock and Company, Great Eagle Holdings, CK Asset Holdings and Sino Land to win the 863,157 square foot (80,189 square foot) commercial project.

Pan Sutong Goldin

Goldin boss Pan Sutong denied reports that his company lacked the cash to follow through on the land purchase

Today, the developer was pointed in asserting that it had not bitten off more than it could finance, when it agreed to pay the equivalent of HK$12,888 per square foot of gross floor area for the project.

“I would submit a personal bid if the government offered the commercial site for tender in future,” Pan was cited by the South China Morning Post as saying in a conference call. “It is a joke if market talk suggests the deal collapsed because of difficulties in arranging loan financing. Construction of the [company’s] other residential sites in Kai Tak and Ho Man Tin would continue.”

Last November Goldin had paid HK$8.9 billion to buy a 104,496 square foot plot in Kai Tak for a 53,394 square metre residential project, and in 2016 the company had paid HK$6.38 billion for a residential project at the Ho Man Tin MTR station in Kowloon.

A mainland native, Pan, whose personal wealth is estimated by Forbes at $4.9 billion, made his fortune first in electronics and later moved into property development.

Goldin Discovers Hong Kong Challenges After Record Land Buy

With crowds estimated at from 500,000 to over 1 million people having gathered to protest a proposed extradition law last weekend in Hong Kong, and stories of trade wars dominating the headlines in the financial hub, Goldin’s board seems to have seized on these themes as rationale for their land buy about-face.

At an urgent board meeting called on 10 June the directors voted to stop the purchase of Kai Tak 4C Site 4, despite having been informed that the company would lose its deposit.

At the meeting, executive directors Zhou Xiaojun, Huang Rui and Hui Wai Man, as well as independent non-executive directors Abraham Shek Lai Him, Tang Yiu Wing and Joseph Wong Wai Leung are said to have decided that “the occurrence of recent social contradiction and economic instability would have negative impact on the growth of Hong Kong commercial property market,” in voting to abandon the land purchase.

Pan Sutong is said to have voted against the resolution to abandon the site buy, which had been put forward in a resolution from Abraham Shek Lai Him, a pro-Beijing lawmaker in Hong Kong’s legislative council.

2022 Event Calendar House Ad1

With pressure from China’s worsening trade relations with the US having been a year-long theme in Hong Kong, and controversy over the extradition law already having brought LegCo members to blows before Goldin’s land purchase last month, the statement from the company did not specify what changes in Hong Kong’s environment over the last 30 days had precipitated its costly about-face.

According to Hong Kong regulations, the 115,088 square foot Kai Tak site, which is approved for construction of a commercial building with a hotel of up to 800 rooms, will be returned to the city for auction at a later date.

Share this now

  • LinkedIn
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: daily-sp, Featured, Goldin Financial Holdings, highlight, Hong Kong, Hong Kong land sale, Kai Tak, Pan Sutong

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
Warburg Pincus, Princeton Digital Foretell Asia’s Data Centre Future

More MTD TV Videos>>

People in the News

serene nah kerry
Kerry Properties CFO Resigns After Less Than 8 Months on Developer’s Board
Lu Yi Shimao
Asia Real Estate People in the News 2022-06-27
Wu Jianxin Kaisa
Asia Real Estate People in the News 2022-06-20
Graham Mackie Tishman
Tishman Speyer Appoints Graham Mackie to Lead APAC Push Beyond China and India

More Industry Professionals>>

People in the News

Kerry Properties CFO Resigns After Less Than 8 Months on Developer’s Board

serene nah kerry

Hong Kong-listed developer Kerry Properties waited until the city was transfixed with the arrival of a visitor from the … Read More>>

Asia Real Estate People in the News 2022-06-27

Lu Yi Shimao

A senior appointment by one of China’s crew of defaulting privately-controlled developers leads this week’s roundup of … Read More>>

Asia Real Estate People in the News 2022-06-20

Wu Jianxin Kaisa

Top level executive changes at a pair of major mainland real estate companies lead this week’s round-up of personnel … Read More>>

Tishman Speyer Appoints Graham Mackie to Lead APAC Push Beyond China and India

Graham Mackie Tishman

US developer Tishman Speyer has hired industry veteran Graham Mackie as a managing director to lead the firm’s Asia … Read More>>

More Industry Professionals>>

Latest Stories

Ting Lim JLL
Mercatus Selling 16 Collyer Quay in Singapore to China’s Bright Ruby for $717M
serene nah kerry
Kerry Properties CFO Resigns After Less Than 8 Months on Developer’s Board
Kevin Kang H3
CDL, HThree Buying Downtown Melbourne Office Tower From AMP for $162M 

Sponsored Features

Should Proptech Give Us Sleepless Nights?
Hong Kong’s Evolving Commercial Real Estate Landscape
Opportunities in the Greater Bay Area

More Sponsored Features>>

MTD-QR-Code-320

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


© 2007-2022 China Advertising Media Ltd (Samoa). All rights reserved.