New hub on Island East

isinvesting HK$15 billion in the redevelopment of the Taikoo Place project in Hong Kong's Quarry Bay, as itaims to transform the district into an alternative business hub to Central.

Aspart of the plan, Swire will build two new grade A office buildings with atotal gross floor area of 1 million square feet each. It targets to completeOne Taikoo Place in 2018 and then Two Taikoo Place in 2021. The new additionswill be incorporated into the broader redevelopment of Taikoo Place throughlinked walkways, green space and dining areas.

"Withour ongoing investment in Taikoo Place, we are well-positioned to meet thecontinued growth of the office sector and the changing needs of progressivecompanies looking for quality office and superior supporting amenities for thebenefit of their employees," said Don Taylor, director of office at SwireProperties.

Crossing borders

*Hilton Worldwide HoldingsInc. expanded in Vietnam by securing a management deal with theSaigon Cuu Long Corp. for the Hilton Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City, which willopen in the last quarter of 2019 with 350 rooms. Hilton currently operates twohotels in Hanoi and has another three in the offing including Hilton Da Nang.

*Shanghai-based property giant Greenland Group and Amare Investment ManagementGroup plan to add two more hotels in Los Angeles and Sydney to the seedportfolio of a hospitality REIT that will be listed in Singapore, DealStreetAsia reported.The duo initially planned to inject 19 mainland Chinese hotels worth about 21billion Chinese yuan into the vehicle.

*Japanese companies Daiwa House and Sumitomo Forestry bought a 75% stake in aresidential development site in Drummoyne, Sydney, which has an eventualproject value of more than A$160 million, TheAustralian reported.The duo will work with local partner EG Funds Management for the project,designated to feature 164 apartments, ground-floor retail and 314 basement carparking spaces.

*CapitaLand Ltd.'sserviced residence unit The Ascott Ltd. plans to increase its properties in thePhilippines to up to 25 with more than 5,000 units by 2020, The Manila Times reported,citing Arthur Gindap, Ascott regional general manager for Philippines andThailand.

*Australian hotel operator MantraGroup Ltd. is seeking to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacificregion by venturing for the first time into Christchurch, New Zealand, andKuala Lumpur, The Australian reported.Meanwhile, the company is also in due diligence for 15 hotel properties withmore than 2,500 rooms in regions such as Bali, Indonesia; Phuket, Thailand; andSingapore.

Japan logistics

*Mitsui Fudosan Co.Ltd. is seeking to list its logistics REIT, Mitsui Fudosan Logistics ParkInc., on the Tokyo bourse Aug. 2 in an IPO that could raise ¥55.7 billion. TheJapanese developer is expected to record between ¥15 billion and ¥18 billion ofcapital gains from the ¥75.5 billion sale of nine distribution facilities thatseed the REIT, the Nikkei Asian Reviewreported.The properties include the GLP/MFLP Ichikawa Shiohama in Chiba Prefecture.

*Asian logistics real estate platform e-Shang Redwood, a merged entity betweene-Shang and Redwood, secureda multibillion-dollar deal for a development project in Tokyo Bay. The companyacquired two land parcels in Kawasaki-city, Kanagawa prefecture, with acombined area of 143,839 square meters, as part of the deal. It plans todevelop three eight-story warehouses in phases.

Meanwhile,Ping An Real Estate injected $300 million in a joint venture with e-ShangRedwood that will target Japanese logistics projects, IPE Real Estate reported.

M&A news

*City DevelopmentsLtd. unit Sunmaster Holdings Pte. Ltd. the remaining 50% stake it doesnot own in a joint venture company with a Wing Tai Holdings Ltd. unit for about S$411.0 million.The joint venture firm, Summervale Properties Pte. Ltd., owns and developed the156-unit Nouvel 18 condominium project on Anderson Road, Singapore.

*Confirming previous rumors, Wharf(Holdings) Ltd. is weighing options for its Communication, Media& Entertainment segment that may involve a of the business. The HongKong-based group is in the middle of a strategic review of the segment, whichincludes primarily its wholly owned subsidiary Wharf T&T Ltd. and its 73.8%-ownedi-Cable. It has received a number of preliminary proposals for the segment fromindependent third parties and intends to further the discussions.

*Growthpoint PropertiesAustralia lifted its offer for GPT Metro Office Fund to an implied A$2.50 per unit,trumping Centuria Capital's most recent offer worth an implied A$2.48 per unit. Separately, thefund's manager, GPTGroup, sold its 12.98% interest in GPT Metro to Growthpoint forA$2.45 per unit.

Centuriawas surprised at the sale,and is waiting for GPT Group's responsible entity to a breach of contract related toa takeover of the fund, an accusation that GPT Group has .

Capital markets

*Sunac China HoldingsLtd. is planning to redeem all of the outstanding bonds underits US$300.0 million 9.375% senior notes issuance due 2018 on Aug. 5.

*CapitaLand CommercialTrust unit issued S$75.0 million 2.77% fixed-rate notes due 2022.

* Inthe listed market, EC World REIT is seeking to be the listed Chinese-specializedlogistics and e-commerce logistics REIT in Singapore. Though a timetable forthe offering is yet to be made, the company will have a market cap of S$1.04billion if the IPO is priced at the top end of the range.

Eye on sales

*CIFI Holdings (Group) Co.Ltd. raised its full year contracted sales target by 20% to 43.8billion yuan from 36.5 billion yuan, after recording a 162% year-on-yearincrease in sales totaling 27.59 billion yuan in the first six months of 2016.

*Dalian Wanda CommercialProperties Co. Ltd. recorded 64.36 billion yuan of revenue in the firsthalf, representing 106.6% of the target amount. It included 50.62 billion yuanin contractedrevenue, which was 108.3% of the target but down 17.3% from a yearago.

*China Vanke Co. Ltd.recorded 190.08billion yuan of sales for the first half.

*China EvergrandeGroup and its subsidiaries posted approximately 141.78 billion yuanof contracted sales for the first half, up 62.8% from the year-ago period.

*Country Garden Holdings Co.Ltd. said the group recorded around 125.07 billion yuan ofcontracted sales for the first half.

*Guangzhou R&F Properties Co.Ltd. and its subsidiaries posted around 29.79 billion yuan ofcontracted sales for the first half, up 44% year over year.

Now featured

: Of the 333 SNL-covered real estate companieslisted in the Asia-Pacific region, 37 owned properties in the European Union asof June 28. Among these, 31 owned assets in the U.K.

: The SNLAsia-Pacific real estate index lagged the SNL Global RE index's second-quartertotal return by 1.6 percentage points.

: The uncertainty clearing over Mitsui Fudosan's plans to list itslogistics REIT in Tokyo and the first REIT to list in the Baltics made newsduring the week.

: S&P Global Market Intelligence presents aweekly rundown of recent significant management and board changes and personnelmoves in the European and Asia-Pacific real estate industries.

The PropertyLedger: Swire Properties plans HK$15B redevelopment; Mitsui Fudosan to sell¥75.5B of assets: The July 8 edition of Asia-Pacific property newsrecap also features a GuocoLand subsidiary's S$595.1 million winning bid for aresidential site in Singapore.