Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman is on the way to his fourth India REIT (Getty Images)
Blackstone leads today’s collection of property headlines from around the region, with Indian media reporting that the investment management titan is planning a commercial property REIT in the country. Also making the list is the ongoing saga of Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin’s London mansion and a Middle Eastern developer’s plans for Southeast Asia data centres.
Blackstone Slated to Launch Fourth India REIT in 2025
The Blackstone Group, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, in collaboration with Bengaluru’s Sattva Group and Pune’s Panchshil Realty, is in advanced discussions to float a commercial REIT in FY25, according to people familiar with the matter. The proposal is expected to be submitted to the market regulator by mid-FY25.
The upcoming REIT, with a projected portfolio of over 40 million square feet, would rank as the second-largest commercial trust in South Asia, behind Embassy REIT, which boasts a portfolio of 45.4 million square feet. Read more>>
Evergrande Boss’s London Mansion Fails to Find a Buyer
Qatar sent an engineer to view London’s most expensive home late last year, in hopes that 2-8a Rutland Gate, a mansion overlooking Hyde Park, could be its new embassy one day. The Gulf state had been considering the purchase for months but lost interest after its inspection revealed the Knightsbridge property required a full refurbishment that would take almost half a decade to complete.
The building, owned by the ex-wife and son of China Evergrande Group founder Xu Jiayin, remains unsold and is now under a global asset freezing order linked to the collapse of Evergrande, complicating any further negotiations. Read more>>
Dubai’s Damac to Invest $3B in Southeast Asia Data Centres
Damac Group, backed by billionaire developer Hussain Sajwani, plans to invest about US$3 billion to build data centres across South-east Asia as the region becomes a hub for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services.
Edgnex Data Centers, a unit of the Dubai-based conglomerate, envisions spending the capital in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand over the next three to five years, said Danish Nayar, senior vice president of investments and acquisitions. The first of three Thai facilities, which will start operating March in Bangkok, will feature Nvidia chips. Read more>>
Country Garden Sales Fell 52% in November
Chinese builder Country Garden Holdings Co.’s sales slump exacerbated in November, adding to the Chinese developer’s liquidity concern as it gains more time to map out a debt overhaul.
Contracted sales for November declined 52.3 percent from a year earlier to 3.01 billion yuan ($414 million), widening from a 31 percent drop in October, Bloomberg calculations based on corporate filings show. Read more>>
Vietnam’s BW Industrial Exploring IPO Options
Warburg Pincus-backed BW Industrial, a logistics and industrial property developer, is eyeing a potential Vietnam initial public offering in one or two years, according to Chief Operating Officer Fion Ng.
The IPO timing will depend on market conditions and “getting ourselves continually up to scale,” she said. The company also this week announced its 12th project in Vietnam, an industrial park in Haiphong. Read more>>
Mainland Investor Gordon Tang Consolidates Empire with OKH Buyout of Construction Firm
OKH Global has entered into a sale and purchase agreement to acquire the entire issued and paid-up share capital of Chip Eng Seng Construction, the construction business of Acrophyte.
Chip Eng Seng Construction is part of Chip Eng Seng Corp, which has been renamed Acrophyte after it was privatised. Gordon and Celine Tang are controlling shareholders of both OKH and Acrophyte. Read more>>
Fitch Predicts China Homes Sales Could Decline 15% in 2025
China’s attempt to revive the local property market has helped stabilise sentiment among homebuyers, according to Fitch Ratings. They are not likely to prevent a fourth straight year of decline in sales in 2025 given weak sector fundamentals, it added.
New home sales could drop by about 15 percent to 7.3 trillion yuan (US$1 trillion) next year, it said in a report on Thursday, reflecting a 10 percent decline in gross floor area sold and a 5 percent drop in average selling prices. Excess inventory and low rental yields are among major reasons for the poor outlook, Fitch said. Read more>>
Singapore, Malaysia Postpone Johor Economic Zone Signing
Malaysia and Singapore will postpone next week’s signing to formalize a special economic zone in Johor, Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Wednesday.
Anwar said Malaysia was asked to reschedule the annual leadership meeting with Singapore to January after Prime Minister Lawrence Wong contracted Covid. Malaysia was slated to host the leaders retreat and the deal for the special economic zone was supposed to be signed then. Read more>>
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