Abu Dhabi Investment House

The Abu Dhabi Investment House, is partnering with Chinese construction firm, Shanghai Construction in $6 billion of real estate developments across China.

The 50-50 joint venture is looking to acquire up to 16 real estate projects in the country, worth around US$6 billion.

It comes at the same time as ADIH is planning a $1.5 billion private equity fund to invest in real estate and manufacturing in China.

Rashad Janahi, Abu Dhabi Investment House Managing Director said in an interview for Reuters it was investing an unspecified amount in the fund along with a local Chinese partner.

The agreement to launch the fund would be signed in the next two months, he added.
Source: Business Intelligence Middle East

Canton Properties

London-listed Canton Property Investment, which develops malls in China, has said its executive chairman had disappeared and its shares had been suspended while the firm sought extra funding.

The Hong Kong-based company, incorporated in early 2007, said in a statement that the executive chairperson, Keng Wong had ‘recently been absent from the company and uncontactable.’

Wong’s secretary told Reuters she had not seen him since August, while executives at the company were unavailable for comment.

Canton Property is investing in projects in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, where property prices have dropped by as much as 30% in the last year after booming for years.

In March, the company said it had bought from Keng Wong and a business partner, Ye Zhuansong, a 100% stake in a mixed-use property project in Guangzhou for about $350 million.

The project, called Canton Finance Center and including shopping space, offices, serviced apartments and a hotel, would be worth about $1.2 billion when completed, the firm said at the time. But in its statement yesterday, Canton Property said it was seeking funding for the project.

Canton’s non-executive director David Brewer, who held the largely ceremonial post of the Lord Mayor of London in 2005 and 2006, resigned after a board meeting on Wednesday failed to agree on the appointment of an interim chairman.
Source: Reuters

Part of Zhongguancun development

China property firm SOHO China  will pay RMB890 million ($130 million) for land-use rights at the ZhongGuanCun SOHO Project, an office and retail complex in Beijing.

The ZhongGuanCun SOHO Project has a construction site area of 5,654 square metres and a total saleable area of 54,260 square metres with 13 storeys above ground and 4 storeys underground comprising commercial, catering, offices and carparks, the company said.

The site will have a 19-story office builidng and 24-story hotel/apartment tower. The office building will have a third-floor lobby linking the tower to a park and other buildings within the development.

A five-star, 377-key hotel is included and the 129 service apartments will be integrated vertically within the tower. A landscaped courtyard, which incorporates three historic trees, will link the freestanding hotel/apartment tower with the office building and planned retail mall.
Source: Reuters

According to the South China Post Southern China-based Evergrande Real Estate Group, which recently canceled plans for a Hong Kong IPO, is looking to at least three strategic partners for stake sales in a bid to raise capital.

Evergrande (the illustration is from its site) is talking with Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, which together own a combined $400 million of the property developer’s convertible bonds.

The report added: ‘The partners have agreed to take up a larger stake but some details are still pending discussion. Evergrande will have new money for development while the three investors can get a larger piece of the firm and lower their average acquisition cost.’

It does not sound quite as encouraging as it might be.
Source: Forbes

Property transactions can be quite complex and, indeed, at times quite baffling.

China Central Properties (CCP) is a property investment company quoted on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM Market which focuses primarily on medium to large partially completed projects in China.

CCP has a portfolio of properties, which include commercial, retail and residential complexes, in Guangzhou, Dalian, Qingdao, Beijing, Chengdu, Shenyang and Chongqing.

It also owns a company called Mountain Breeze (Barbados) SRL which, in turn, has a subsidiary company called Beijing ZhongTian HongYe Real Estate.

Beijing Zhongtian has entered into several agreements for the purchase of Beijing Huapu Centre.

Beijing Huapu Centre is located in Beijing’s prime Dongcheng District and consists of two office towers, each 24-storey high on a nine-storey podium. There are about 127,500 square metres of mixed office and retail space.

The estimated market value of Beijing Huapu Centre is approximately RMB 2.5 billion.

Now CCP is disposing of Mountain Breeze (which includes Beijing ZhongTian HongYe Real Estate) and CCP will record a gain on disposal of the project, before transaction costs, of about RMB300 million. CCP intends to use the sale proceeds to fund its acquisition of additional property projects.
Source: Hemscott