Perennial Lines Up Green Loans for 8 Shenton Way

In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, a Singapore redevelopment project wins a record-setting green loan, Temasek Holdings licks its wounds after investing in troubled crypto exchange FTX, and China Evergrande touts onshore assets to boost its credit profile.

Perennial-Led Consortium Secures S$3B Green Loan for 8 Shenton Way

A consortium led by Perennial Holdings has secured a S$3 billion ($2.2 billion) green loan to finance the redevelopment of 8 Shenton Way.

This is the largest real estate green loan in Asia to date. Perennial, DBS and OCBC on Thursday said the new building at 8 Shenton Way is “committed to secure” the Green Mark Platinum certification, which is the Building and Construction Authority’s top sustainability standard for buildings in Singapore. Read more>>

Temasek Writes Down $275M Investment in Bankrupt Crypto Exchange FTX

FTX’s investors are continuing to deal with the fallout from the cryptocurrency exchange’s bankruptcy. Temasek Holdings, the investment firm owned by Singapore’s government, said Thursday that it would write down its full investment in FTX, “irrespective of the outcome of FTX’s bankruptcy protection filing”.

Temasek invested $210 million in FTX international, giving it a minority stake of about 1 percent. It also invested $65 million for a minority stake of about 1.5 percent in FTX US, in two funding rounds from October 2021 to January 2022. The firm said the total cost of its investment was 0.09 percent of its net portfolio value of S$403 billion ($293 billion). Read more>>

Evergrande Eyes Onshore Assets to Sweeten Offshore Debt Restructuring

Defaulting developer China Evergrande Group plans to use domestic assets as sweeteners to win offshore creditor approval for a long-awaited debt restructuring proposal, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Evergrande, engulfed by $300 billion in liabilities, aims to start negotiating restructuring terms next month and is combing through onshore assets to offer as additional credit enhancement to holders of its US dollar-denominated bonds, the people said. Read more>>

Hedge Funds Bought Country Garden Placement to Cover Shorts

Hedge funds seeking to cover their short positions in Country Garden Holdings were among the biggest buyers of the Chinese developer’s share placement this week, according to people familiar with the matter.

The funds’ role in the deal suggests that at least some buyers were motivated by a desire to lock in profits on bearish wagers after a more than year-long tumble in Country Garden’s stock, as opposed to betting on gains. Read more>>

China Builder Sunac’s Winding-Up Case Adjourned for 7 Months

A court hearing on a winding-up lawsuit against Chinese developer Sunac China Holdings was adjourned to June, providing the firm more leeway to craft a debt-restructuring plan.

The case has been adjourned to June 14, 2023, according to a Hong Kong court decision Wednesday morning. Read more>>

Korean NPS Narrows Search for New CIO to 2 Major Candidates

South Korea’s National Pension Service, the world’s third-largest pension fund with KRW 917.2 trillion ($692 billion) in assets under management, closed the window for chief investment officer applications on 11 November, with the two major candidates coming from sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation and retirement fund Government Employees Pension Service.

Set to be chosen as early as January 2023, the recruitment of the new CIO is expected to be a run-off of the two external candidates: former KIC CIO Park Dae-yang and former GEPS CIO Seo Won-joo, according to investment banking sources. Read more>>

Sumitomo to Invest $3.6B in India Office Complexes

Japan’s Sumitomo Realty & Development will invest JPY 500 billion ($3.58 billion) in office building projects in India, expanding in what is projected to become the world’s most populous nation mere months from now.

The company recently spent JPY 35.1 billion acquiring 12,000 square metres (129,167 square feet) of land in the Bandra Kurla Complex, a rapidly developing business and residential district of Mumbai, Nikkei has learned. The plot is one of the largest office building sites in the BKC. Read more>>

Swire Releases New Renderings of Miami Supertall, Groundbreaking Soon

Hong Kong’s Swire Properties has released new renderings of their One Brickell City Centre supertall office tower in Miami.

The developer also confirmed that construction will begin in early 2023. Signage has been installed at the project site in recent days. Read more>>

Tune in again soon for more real estate news and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.