Monthly Archives: September 2009

Asia Food & Properties plans split, new unit listing

Posted on 25 Sep 2009 | Comments Off on Asia Food & Properties plans split, new unit listing

MAINBOARD-LISTED Asia Food & Properties (AFP) announced yesterday that it plans to spin off its China property business into a separately listed company to handle its investments there.

The news led to frenzied trading in AFP, with 11.7 million shares changing hands as the share price soared by 25 cents, or 62.5 per cent, to close at a one-year high of 65 cents.

Under the proposed scheme, AFP shareholders will be granted shares in newly formed Singapore-listed Bund Center Group, in proportion to their AFP shareholdings.

The new company will be a China-centric property company, while AFP will focus on the South-east Asian property market.

The split will allow the companies to independently establish business strategies. This means they can effectively adapt to the different market conditions in the two regions, said AFP. Continue reading →

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Housing market sizzles again

Posted on 25 Sep 2009 | Comments Off on Housing market sizzles again

It is hard to miss the upbeat mood in South Korea these days. The latest economic indicators coming out of Asia’s fourth-largest economy show that the country is edging out of the financial doghouse that the world was thrown into late last year.

One indicator that analysts have pointed to is the slowly but steadily rising housing prices. The appetite to buy property has returned on the back of record low borrowing costs.

Since April, housing prices have climbed for five consecutive months, according to market data by Kookmin Bank. Last month, prices rose another 0.3 per cent above the previous month.

Housing prices in Seoul, the economic heart of the country, have a bearing on prices nationwide, and they went up by 0.5 per cent. Transactions also picked up.

‘People are confident enough to buy houses because they sense they don’t need to hold on to cash any more,’ said Mr Lee Chung Yeol, a real estate agent in the Gangnam district. Continue reading →

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