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Mirvac could derail Charter Hall-Blackstone deal; Unibail-Westfield merger nears

* Ongoing discussions between Mirvac Group and an unnamed underbidder could potentially prevent Charter Hall Group from buying Blackstone Group LP's over A$800 million half-stake in Westpac Banking Corp.'s headquarters in Sydney, The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk reported. As co-owner of Westpac Place, Mirvac has the first right to nominate its future co-investor.

Charter Hall was reported earlier in May to have secured the preferred-buyer status in relation to the stake sale, after edging competitions that include GPT Group, the Deutsche Bank-represented National Pension Service of Korea, ISPT and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

* Separately, the U.S.-based Blackstone sold Bendigo & Adelaide Bank Ltd.'s headquarters at 80 Grenfell St. in Adelaide, Australia, to a partnership between Centuria Capital Group subsidiary Centuria Property Funds Ltd. and The Lederer Group for A$184.6 million.

The 50/50 joint venture was earlier said to have signed a deal for the 23,472-square-meter building, which also attracted Western Australian funds manager Primewest and Singaporean investor ARA Asset Management.

* Security holders' vote on Unibail-Rodamco SE's US$15.68 billion proposed takeover of Westfield Corp. does not happen until later on May 24 but industry analysts, as cited by The Australian, are already calling the merger a "done deal" for the French offeror.

Cash delivered to Westfield investors as part of the yet-to-be-completed transaction are now being invested to other listed property companies such as Goodman Group, Dexus and GPT, according to Winston Sammut, Folkestone Maxim Asset Man­agement's managing director.

Australia

* AccorHotels' A$1.18 billion takeover of Mantra Group Ltd. became legally effective May 23, following the Federal Court of Australia's approval of the merger scheme. AccorHotels' buyout of the Australia-listed hotel operator will be implemented May 31, through its AAPC Ltd. subsidiary.

* Hong Kong private equity firm Gaw Capital is understood to have signed an over A$160 million deal to buy a hotel, student accommodation and office complex in Melbourne from Elanor Investors Group, The Australian reported. Mantra and Breakfree are managing the hotel and student accommodation components of the 844-room, mixed-use Bell City Hotel that Elanor acquired for more than A$142 million in 2014.

* Fund manager Impact Investment Group is expecting more than A$70 million from the planned sale of the 5,500-square-meter commercial building at One Hundred Broadway in Sydney, the AFR reported. Impact Investment co-owns the six-level property with Frasers Property Ltd.'s Australian development arm and Sekisui House Ltd.

* Five-star hotels with an estimated end value of A$2.8 billion will anchor Chinese-Australian property developer Yuhu Group's ongoing projects in Sydney and in the Gold Coast, according to the AFR. The sites intended for the projects, which were bought from Wanda Hotel Development Co. Ltd. by Yuhu's AWH Investment Group Pty. Ltd. associate under a A$1.13 billion deal, will be developed using A$3 billion of allocated funds.

* The Woollahra Council and the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales rejected a A$140 million plan lodged by Menulog co-founder Leon Kamenev for the development of an A$80 million amalgamated harborfront site in Sydney, The Australian reported. Despite the rejection, the Ukrainian is said to be keen on retaining the contemporary mansion design for the project.

Hong Kong and China

* Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd.'s 10 billion yuan of real estate investment trusts, which are mainly based on rental properties, started trading in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Qualified investors with trading accounts in securities and bonds are able to trade the REITs.

* Gemdale Corp. plans to issue 3 billion yuan of corporate bonds to repay bank loans and debts. The three-year bonds will bear an interest rate of 4.7% to 5.7%, while the five-year bonds will yield 5% to 6% per year.

* HKR International Ltd. is expecting a year-over-year increase of between 170% and 190% in its net profit attributable to owners of the company for the financial year ended March 31. The company largely attributed the bullish forecast to the net gain from its disposal of the 22nd floor of the China Merchants Tower in Hong Kong.

* Chinese co-working space provider Kr Space Ltd. is continuing its expansion in its home country by launching two new branches in Beijing and Shanghai. The company, fresh from entering Hong Kong, also unveiled plans to open 12 more locations in the two Chinese cities within the next 100 days.

Singapore

* A minimum expected price of S$218 million was attached to the 72-unit Balestier Regency property when the auction for its collective sale was launched, The (Singapore) Business Times reported, citing marketing agent Teakhwa Real Estate. The tender for the 61,951.8-square-foot condominium development will run until June 21.

Japan

* Ruden Holdings Co. Ltd., a Tokyo-based real estate service and development company, will issue in December a cryptocurrency specializing in real estate transactions overseas, Tokyo's The Nikkei reported.

India

* An estimated 55.00 billion rupees of private equity investments have been directed to the retail real estate sector of India between 2015 and the first quarter of 2018, Mumbai's The Economic Times reported, citing figures from JLL India. Amid the growing interest for the sector, JLL is also expecting that about 90 malls in major cities will hit the market by 2022.

Other real estate news

* Bangkok-based Minor International PCL is spending €192 million for the purchase of 30 million shares of Spanish company NH Hotel Group SA. The agreed transaction, upon its completion, will lift Minor International's stake in NH Hotel to 8.6%.

* Mitsui & Co. Ltd., through its MBK Real Estate LLC subsidiary, entered into a US$382 million agreement for the acquisition of West Living LLC's portfolio of nine senior living properties in the U.S. Completion of the acquisition is expected late-June.

* Nishi-Nippon Railroad Co. Ltd. will partner with Mitsubishi Corp. and a U.S.-based real estate developer to build 385 rental apartments in Plano, Texas, for sale to institutional investors, The Nikkei reported.

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The Daily Dose Asia-Pacific, Real Estate edition is updated by 6:30 a.m. Hong Kong time. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.

Rollen Catorce, Emily Lai and Jaekwon Lim contributed to this report.

As of May 23, US$1 was equivalent to 68.37 Indian rupees, 6.39 yuan and S$1.34.