* Carol Wu, head of research for Hong Kong and China at DBS Vickers, said legislators are speeding up the drafting of the law that will allow listing of real estate investment trusts in China. Wu said the first REIT listing on mainland China's stock exchange could happen as early as this year.
Wu added that the update is based on the investment bank's communications with China's top regulators such as the China Securities Regulatory Commission and China Banking Regulatory Commission.
* Blackstone Group LP's latest pan-Asia opportunistic real estate fund is reportedly on track to reach its hard-cap target of about US$7 billion at closing. If projections come to fruition, Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia II would be the largest closed-ended real estate fund raised in the Asia-Pacific region to date.
* Fresh from its acquisition of New Space, UrWork (Beijing) Venture Investment Co. Ltd., commonly known as ucommune, wrapped up its takeover of Woo Space, creating Asia's largest co-working space operator with valuation of US$1.7 billion.
Hong Kong and China
* For the full year 2017, Jiande International Holdings Ltd. is expecting to log a profit attributable to owners of the company instead of a loss. In the year ended Dec. 31, 2016, the Hong Kong-listed company recorded a loss of nearly 519.0 million yuan, according to its filing.
* Carnival Group International Holdings Ltd. is anticipating its profit for the year ended Dec. 31, 2017, to be 8x higher compared to the figure logged in the year-ago period. China VAST Industrial Urban Development Co. Ltd., meanwhile, is projecting year-over-year growth of at least 50% in its profit attributable to equity holders for the comparable prior-year period.
* Jingrui Holdings Ltd. revised its profit guidance for full financial year 2017 and is now expecting its profit attributable to equity holders to surge year over year by about 650% during the reporting period from the initially announced growth expectation of between 450% and 500%.
* Beijing Capital Land Ltd. subsidiary Tianjin Xingtai Jihong Real Estate Co. Ltd. signed an approximately 1.83 billion-yuan deal to buy the remaining 51% stake it does not already own in the developer of a roughly 66,888-square-meter site in Tianjin, China, from Tianjin Metro Group Co. Ltd.
Tianjin Xingtai's initial investment in the project company, Tianjin TJ-Metro MTR Construction Co. Ltd., was made in March 2017 when it paid 1.30 billion yuan for an MTR Corp. Ltd. subsidiary's 49% stake in Tianjin TJ-Metro.
* A partnership between two indirect wholly owned China Vanke Co. Ltd. subsidiaries is buying a roughly 30,453-square-meter redevelopment project in Dongguan, China, from a joint venture between Prosperity International Holdings (HK) Ltd. and Dongguan City Danxin Property Co. Ltd. for 830 million yuan.
* Beijing Centergate Technologies (Holding) Co. Ltd. is planning to divest for an undisclosed amount a real estate development subsidiary based in Harbin, China, Reuters reported.
* China Resources Land Ltd. and Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd.'s respective contracted sales both decreased year over year in February to an estimated 7.60 billion yuan and 1.85 billion yuan.
* Guangzhou City Construction & Development Co. Ltd., a 95%-owned subsidiary of Yuexiu Property Co. Ltd., agreed to provide financial assitance of up to about 1.15 billion yuan to Guangzhou Yuexiu Property Development Co. Ltd., a fellow Yuexiu Property subsidiary.
Guangzhou City Construction is also proposing the establishment of the group's first asset-backed securities plan in China, which will see Guangzhou Yuexiu Property and seven other Yuexiu Property subsidiaries pledge management fees expected from 45 projects as collateral for the 10-year term loan. The plan's ceiling price is equivalent to the loan's amount.
* Amid its asset-divestment spree, Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. Ltd. signed separate cooperation deals with real estate services firms Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. and Cushman & Wakefield in relation to the management of its global portfolio.
Australia
* Charter Hall Group is believed to be mulling the acquisition of the A$300 million half-stake that it does not already own in the Allianz Centre property in Sydney from European financial services company Allianz SE, The Australian Financial Review reported.
* Knight Frank and CBRE have been tapped by the private owners of two strata office buildings in Sydney to gauge the market for the potential sale of the properties. The AFR reported that the assets could be valued at A$150 million combined upon the completion of an ongoing site rezoning in the area where the future Crows Nest metro station is being constructed.
Singapore
* Perennial Real Estate Holdings Ltd., as planned, signed a deal to buy out Chesham Properties Pte. Ltd.'s shares in the nearly S$1.03 billion Capitol Singapore mixed-use development. Earlier, the listed developer said it will likely pay roughly S$129.6 million to gain full ownership of the project.
* The return of foreign buyers is expected to drive Singapore's property market to full recovery, Eli Lee, head of investment strategy at the Bank of Singapore, told Financial Times. The easing of property cooling measures and the en bloc boom in the city-state were also identified by the paper as factors contributing to the sector's recovery.
India
* Shishir Shrivastava, joint managing director at The Phoenix Mills Ltd., was quoted by India's Mint as saying that the developer is aiming to double its domestic office portfolio to 3.5 million square feet within four years. The developer currently owns 6.5 million square feet of retail properties across seven Indian cities and 1.5 million square feet of office space in Mumbai.
Japan
* Nippon Accommodations Fund Inc. agreed to pay approximately ¥4.10 billion for two 13-story residential properties in Tokyo. The multifamily-focused REIT said it will use a combination of internal cash reserve and debt to cover the cost of the planned acquisition.
* Mitsui Fudosan Co. Ltd. will open in the spring of 2018 the Mitsui Shopping Park LALA Garden Tsukuba and the Garden HAUS in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, which will be operated by Mitsui Fudosan Retail Management Co. Ltd.
* Mitsui Fudosan Residential Co. Ltd. and JX Nippon Real Estate Corp. completed the 592-unit Park City Musashi Kosugi The Garden Towers East condominium in Nakahara Ward, Kawasaki City. The site area is approximately 8,498 square meters, and the total floor area covers approximately 70,888 square meters, RE Port reported.
Rollen Catorce and John Chan contributed to this report.
As of March 13, US$1 was equivalent to 6.32 yuan, ¥106.57 and S$1.31.
