Category Archives: Overseas Property

Mapletree starts work on south China project

Posted on 19 Nov 2009 | Comments Off on Mapletree starts work on south China project

Mapletree Investments yesterday unveiled plans for the US$342 million first phase of its Nanhai Business City, a mixed-use development in Foshan City, China.

Twenty high-rise apartment blocks with about 2,000 residential apartments and a four-storey retail mall called VivoCity@Nanhai will be developed in phase one, Mapletree said.

Nanhai Business City is the group’s first commercial project in south China and its largest project so far.

The project is being developed by a Mapletree- sponsored private real estate fund called Mapletree India China Fund, which holds 80 per cent of a joint venture company set up to develop the project. The remaining 20 per cent is held by local Chinese partner Pan Shun Ming, who is chairman of Southern Packaging.

Nanhai Business City is the Mapletree fund’s third investment in China.

Mapletree celebrated the ground-breaking ceremony for phase one yesterday. This phase, expected to be completed by 2013, involves the development of 10 hectares of land into the high-rise residential blocks and retail mall.

The residential component will also have facilities such as a recreation centre, gymnasium, cafe, basketball court, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and themed gardens. The first batch of 270 units will be ready for sale in the third quarter of 2010.

VivoCity@Nanhai, the four-storey retail mall, will have about 100,000 sq metres of gross floor area. Mapletree said the mall will incorporate the ’successful attributes’ of its VivoCity shopping mall in Singapore.

The entire Nanhai Business City will cover more than 35 ha and will be developed in four phases over the next five to eight years.

‘Our investment in Nanhai Business City underscores the importance of South China as an investment location for Mapletree, particularly, the Nanhai district in Foshan City,’ said Mapletree chief executive Hiew Yoon Khong.

He said Mapletree is evaluating several other suitable investments in China and India for its US$1.16 billion Mapletree India China Fund, which was set up to fund the group’s expansion in these countries.

Source : Business Times – 19 Nov 2009

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CIMB seeks to set up private real estate funds here

Posted on 19 Nov 2009 | Comments Off on CIMB seeks to set up private real estate funds here

Forms JV with S’pore firm to invest in Aussie property

The real estate division of Malaysia’s CIMB Group is looking to set up private real estate funds in Singapore to invest in Australian property.

CIMB has formed a joint venture with Singapore-based TrustCapital Advisors – CIMB-TrustCapital Advisors Singapore, or CIMB-TCA – which is now raising equity to invest in office properties in Melbourne and Sydney.

TrustCapital Advisors’ managing director Chris Cheah told BT the target is for the JV to grow total assets under management in Australia to A$3 billion (S$3.87 billion) in five years. Several funds will be set up and at least one will be listed, he said.

Mr Cheah owns 50 per cent of TrustCapital Advisors, which has a 30 per cent stake in CIMB-TCA. The remaining 70 per cent is owned by CIMB Real Estate.

With the setting up of CIMB-TCA, Singapore has become CIMB’s international headquarters for private real estate funds outside Malaysia. The group has another JV, with Singapore’s Mapletree Investments, to run its Malaysia-focused private real estate funds.

For this newest JV, CIMB will provide A$20 million of seed money. The JV company will tap CIMB’s private and investment banking units to raise equity for its funds, Mr Cheah said.

The first fund CIMB-TCA sets up will target completed office buildings in Australia. Mr Cheah said Australia was picked as the first market to enter because it is ’safe’.

‘If you look at the global economies right now, I think the Australian economy is one of the strongest,’ he said. Occupancy rates for Australian office space stand at more than the 90 per cent generally. And the market also provides good returns – broadly speaking, office buildings offer yields of 7 per cent or more per year, said Mr Cheah.

He is also very familiar with the Australian market – as the former head of property for Australia’s ANZ bank. His partner David Tan, who owns the remaining 50 per cent of TrustCapital Advisors, is the former CEO of APL Japan Trust and led Singapore-listed CapitaCommercial Trust before that.

CIMB Group is Malaysia’s second-largest financial services group.

Source : Business Times – 19 Nov 2009

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