* Investa Property Group is believed to be under negotiations to form an alliance with Macquarie Capital Ltd., The Australian reported. Macquarie is the financial adviser of the unlisted Investa Commercial Property Fund, the owner of Investa Property and a major shareholder of the Blackstone Group LP-targeted Investa Office Fund, or IOF.
An alliance between the A$11 billion-plus platform and the investment bank could reportedly affect Blackstone's A$3.14 billion takeover proposal for IOF, since the U.S.-based private equity giant may not warm to the idea of Macquarie having an influence over IOF's A$4 billion office tower portfolio.
* Still related to the Blackstone-IOF deal, UBS analysts James Druce and Grant McCasker were reported by The Australian Financial Review as saying that the completion of the recently unveiled transaction could benefit other players in Australia's office property sector.
The potential benefits to property companies, such as Vicinity Centres, Mirvac Group, Dexus, Charter Hall Group and GPT Group, are said to be similar to investments sourced from the A$7 billion payout arising from Westfield Corp.'s ongoing merger with Unibail-Rodamco SE.
* Westfield will take its bow on the Australian stock exchange May 30 as Unibail's takeover of the shopping mall landlord was approved by the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Orders from the court is now ready to be lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, with the US$15.68 billion merger scheme expected to be implemented June 7.
Hong Kong and China
* Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd.'s board approved the proposed separate listing of the diversified real estate developer's property management business. The Hong Kong-bourse listing of Country Garden Services Holdings Co. Ltd. is now subject to, among other conditions, the payment of a special dividend to eligible shareholders on record as of June 13.
* Henderson Land Development Co. Ltd. said it will commence early June the sale of 103 units at its Cetus.Square Mile residential development in the Tai Kok Tsui area of Kowloon, Hong Kong. The (Hong Kong) Standard, citing Mark Hahn Ka-fai, Henderson Land's sales department general manager, reported the units will be priced according to the current market conditions.
Meanwhile, K. Wah International Holdings Ltd. received a total of 4,000 applications for 238 flats on offer at its Solaria housing project in the Pak Shek Kok district of Tai Po, Hong Kong, making the sale 16x oversubscribed, The Standard reported.
* New World Development Co. Ltd. will start the pre-sale of its Fleur Pavilia residential project in North Point, Hong Kong, early June, Apple Daily reported. The first batch of 123 apartments includes nine two-bedroom, 106 three-bedroom, and eight four-bedroom units, with prices ranging from HK$24.41 million to HK$70.08 million.
* A First Sponsor Group Ltd. subsidiary entered into a deal to sell the Chengdu Cityspring mixed-use project in the Sichuan Province of China for 465.0 million yuan. The property will feature six residential and four commercial buildings, along with 1,272 parking slots in the basement.
* Moody's Investors Service said China's national contracted sales value decreased to 9.5% in the first four months of 2018 from the 11.4% recorded in the first quarter of the year. The rating agency attributed the decline largely to stricter credit conditions and regulations in the country.
Australia
* Gold Coast-based company Greater Rewards Group is reviving plans to develop a A$900 million residential project within the Whitsunday Shores Estate in Queensland's north, AFR reported. The soon-to-be-filed proposal will involve the construction of 1,800 dwellings on the 269-hectare site formerly owned by the Aspen Group.
* Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board approved A$15.25 billion in real estate investments from China within the year ended June 30, 2017, lower compared to the A$31.91 billion approved in the prior-year period.
The decrease follows a survey conducted by UBS, which found that Chinese investors are shifting their attention to the real estate markets of Japan and Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, and away from Australia, for better returns, The Australian reported.
Japan
* Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd. will increase the capacity of its Royal Park Hotels chain by about 1,500 rooms amid growing competition from the private lodging sector, Tokyo's The Nikkei reported. The move comes as the country implements in June the new law legalizing Airbnb-style home-sharing rentals.
* According to Tokyo-based real estate research firm Japan Real Estate Institute, office building prices in Tokyo rose 1.3% between October 2017 and April 2018, putting Tokyo in seventh place among 14 major cities worldwide which recorded increases in office building prices, The Nikkei reported. Osaka registered a rise of 4.4%, the second highest among surveyed cities.
India
* WeWork Cos. is reportedly leasing K Raheja Group's 10-story Raheja Platinum commercial building in Andheri, Mumbai, for its fifth office space in the city. The co-working space operator will be occupying the entire building, which provides a total of 200,000 square feet of office space.
Rollen Catorce, Emily Lai and Jaekwon Lim contributed to this report.
As of May 29, US$1 was equivalent to 6.42 yuan.
