Yanlord and Ho Bee buy Shanghai site

TWO Singapore-listed property groups, Yanlord Land and Ho Bee Investment, have acquired a 13.69ha residential development site in a fast-growing area of Shanghai for 3.82 billion yuan (S$789 million).

This is the first joint venture bet-ween Yanlord, based in China, and local firm Ho Bee, after they inked an agreement last October to explore investment options in Tangshan, China.

Yanlord will have a 60 per cent stake in the Shanghai project, while Ho Bee is taking the remaining 40 per cent.

The site is in Shanghai’s Qingpu site, 5.5km from the Hongqiao commercial district, which has been earmarked by the authorities for major development as a financial and transport centre.

‘This latest acquisition will tap on the emergence of the Hongqiao commercial district as a key economic, financial, commercial and logistic hub servicing the greater Yangtze River Delta region,’ said Ho Bee chairman Chua Thian Poh in a media statement.

He added that the development site was ‘ideally situated within the Qingpu Tujing Township, which has in recent years emerged as a high-end international residential community in western Shanghai’.

Yanlord chairman Zhong Sheng Jian was equally upbeat about the project.

‘The latest acquisition of the Qingpu land parcel reflects our continued confidence in the potential of Shanghai’s real estate sector and presents a unique opportunity for investment in large-scale, high-end residential developments amid the growing scarcity of sizeable prime residential development sites within Shanghai’s city centre,’ he said.

He said the company would draw on its past experiences in Qingpu district in key projects there such as Shanghai Yanlord Riverside Gardens and Yunjie Riverside Gardens.

‘We are confident that our ability to amalgamate quality, aesthetics and functionality will lead to the creation of another landmark international residential development,’ Mr Zhong said.

The two firms teamed up last October to explore a project to build residential properties at Nanhu Eco-City on the outskirts of Tangshan, in north-eastern China.

However, the project has been put on hold while the two firms wait for the authorities to release the land for tender.

On the stock market yesterday, Yanlord gained three cents to close at $1.79 while Ho Bee rose six cents to $1.80.

Source : Straits Times – 18 Feb 2010