亚洲地产·精选头条| Brookfield Closes in on $185M India Asset and More

Brookfield is said to be in the final stages of acquiring the ICICI Bank building in Hyderabad

India is back in the news today as the subcontinent’s real estate assets continue to show their appeal to the world’s largest private equity players. In addition to Brookfield’s reported offer for a Hyderabad office block, global brokerage Savills is looking to lure Chinese capital to Polish properties, and JD.com is ready to offer overseas homes to Chinese buyers via its e-commerce bazaar. Also in the headlines, mainland residential developers are seeking to tap the next growth wave by building schools, and tech titan Tencent is getting in on the “new retail” game. Read on for more details about these optimistic happening in Asia’s real estate industry.

Brookfield Said in Final Talks on Buying $185M India Office Block

Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management is in final stages of discussions with private sector lender ICICI Bank Ltd to acquire the ICICI Tower in Hyderabad, two people aware of the development said. Brookfield is on the verge of signing the deal for the property situated in Gachibowli financial district, said one of the two persons on the condition of anonymity.

“Brookfield has completed the due diligence and some of the transfer procedures are pending. The deal may be signed in a couple of weeks’ time,” said the second person. The 1.2 million square foot building is valued at around Rs1,000-1,200 crore ($153.8 million to $184.6 million), according to the second person.

Savills Sets Up China Desk in Warsaw

Real estate consultancy Savills has set up a special section within its Warsaw-based corporate finance and valuation department dedicated to Chinese investors interested in the Polish commercial real estate market. “As Poland is seeing a growing number of commercial properties of a large enough scale to represent opportunities to Chinese funds, it appears reasonable to begin trying to attract capital from that part of the world,” said Piotr Klapkowski, China Desk leader, corporate finance and valuation department at Savills.

Klapkowski joined Savills in October 2016, having been employed in commercial real estate in Beijing. His experience includes three years as a manager in the valuation and advisory department of Cushman & Wakefield’s China office, where he participated in the IPO of Dalian Wanda, one of China’s leading developers, valued at around $3.9 billion. 

Vanke, Banyan Tree JV Buys Up $215M in China Hotel Assets

A joint venture between Banyan Tree Holdings and Chinese real estate developer Vanke has acquired all the hotel assets of the Banyan Tree China Hospitality Fund for RMB 1.35 billion yuan ($214.5 million) as part of plans to form a strategic partnership in China.

The purchase was made through JV vehicle Shanghai Yuewan Enterprise Management, with Banyan Tree holding a 6.7 percent stake and Vanke holding the remaining 93.3 percent. Following the purchase, Shanghai Yuewan was absorbed by Banyan Tree Assets (China) Holdings (BTAC), a JV company formed between Banyan Tree Holdings and Vanke for holding substantially all of the hotels and real estate assets of the JV in China. 

Juwai to Hawk Overseas Properties on JD.com

JD.com, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has expanded its domestic real estate offering by selling overseas properties too, despite the strict capital controls still in place on money leaving the country imposed by the government.

From Sunday, the website is partnering with Juwai.com – an international property listing site targeting mainly Chinese – to market villas and flats on JD.com with those in the US, Britain and Canada to follow. Juwai has 2.2 million monthly users and showcases 2.8 million listings from 90 countries, but the arrangement means it can now market its offerings to nearly 300 million JD.com users.

Chinese Home Builders Look to Schools for Growth

Residential developers are building new complexes with schools within walking distance of apartments, hiring or building in-house education teams to recruit teachers and design bilingual curriculums.

Guangzhou-based Country Garden, China’s top residential developer by sales, is now also among the country’s biggest private education providers. Its education subsidiary, Bright Scholar, runs 52 bilingual international schools that each offer a full education from kindergarten to secondary school. Bright Scholar listed on the New York Stock Exchange last year, raising more than $150 million. 

Tencent Joins “New Retail” Fray with Digital Tools

As “new retail” changes from jargon to oft-used phrase, Tencent has thrown their hat into the ring. However, they don’t plan on opening their own stores (the WeChat pop-up seems to have been exactly that). Rather they want to be the foundation to help the retail industry achieve two goals: the digital upgrade of stores and the optimization of user experience.

“Tencent does not do retail, not even any commerce, but is only the ground level (底层) and gives the opportunity to all partners,” Tencent CEO Pony Ma said (our translation) at Tencent’s smart unmanned retail industry conference held on March 30. Since Tencent began to cooperate with many offline industries using WeChat as their payment option in 2014, the tech giant has continuously provided tools for retail enterprises through Tencent Cloud, social advertisements, and more recently mini programs to connect people and businesses. 

Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.

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