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Peggy Sito

Lam Ka-sing

HNA Group will sell its last plot of development land at Hong Kong’s former Kai Tak airport site to Hong Kong developer Wheelock & Co, as the one-time high-flying Chinese conglomerate rushes to sell assets to repay debts.
The listed unit of the Hainan-based company, Hong Kong International Construction Investment Management Group, sold the plot to Wheelock for HK$6.89 billion (US$878.01 million), representing a loss of HK$550 million, reflecting the slowdown of the residential property market in Hong Kong, according to a company filing on Friday.
HNA bought the plot in March 2017 for HK$7.44 billion or HK$13,500 per square foot on the basis of gross floor area of 551,134 square feet.
The price tag will be about HK$7.44 billion, but HNA incurred costs such as interest rates and foundation work, one source said.
HNA sells Wheelock third plot of Kai Tak land to repay borrowings, making a profit
Hong Kong International Construction was suspended from trading at 9am Friday morning and the company said it was related to a major transaction.




As late as Thursday night, a couple of other bidders wanted to compete for the parcel in an area widely expected to be a new central business district of Hong Kong, the source said.
Both HNA and Wheelock were unavailable for comment.
In March last year, HNA sold its third plot of Kai Tak land to Wheelock for HK$6.36 billion. In February, HNA sold two pieces of land to Henderson Land Development for HK$15.91 billion, giving the Hong Kong developer its first foothold in Kai Tak. HNA made a profit of HK$1.7 billion from that sale.
These three sales totalled HK$22.27 billion, which means HNA made a profit of HK$2.49 billion from the transactions.
Wheelock eyes HNA’s last Kai Tak plot even as it posts a 1.5pc rise in 2017 core profit
“Overall, HNA made a decent profit from the Kai Tak sites,” a source said.
Wheelock already has a piece of land at Kai Tak, bought for HK$2.52 billion in 2014, on which it launched its Oasis Kai Tak flats.
Wheelock said in March that it was interested in HNA Group’s last residential site in Kai Tak should the debt-laden Chinese conglomerate put it up for sale.
“If HNA considers [selling] the fourth piece of land to certain buyers, I am sure that we will go through with it,” Douglas Woo, chairman and managing director of Wheelock, said in March.
The sale of the parcel is the latest among HNA’s efforts to sell assets.
It sold 70 per cent of its space in a Shanghai office building to Singapore property giant CapitaLand for 2.75 billion yuan (US$400.5 million), CapitaLand said on January 7.
It also sold a building in Manhattan to help ease debts and stave off US concerns about a Chinese company owning property near Trump Tower, it said on January 10.
Bisnow reported earlier that investor and real estate developer Jacob Chetrit and his sons bought the the building in a US$422 million transaction that resulted in a loss for HNA, which bought the tower for US$463 million with its partners.
Meanwhile, in another development at Hong Kong’s old airport, the first commercial plot to be tendered on the runway of Hong Kong’s old airport at Kai Tak was withdrawn from sale on Wednesday after the Lands Department announced it had rejected all nine tenders received for the land.


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Hong Kong property

HNA will sell its last Kai Tak parcel to Wheelock at a HK$550 million loss

Aerial drone view of the former Kai Tak runway site taken January 31, 2019. Photo: Martin Chan

HNA sells Wheelock third plot of Kai Tak land to repay borrowings, making a profit

A general view of Kai Tak Site as of 31 December 2016. Photo: SCMP/Bruce Yan

land sales by government tender in Kai Tak area. Sources: Lands Department, SCMP

graphic for online

Property

Hong Kong & China

Business

HNA bought the plot in March 2017 for HK$7.44 billion, or HK$13,500 per square foot, and then incurred costs such as interest and foundation work


This the fourth plot at the former Kai Tak airport to be sold by the once high-flying global buyer HNA.


HNA Group

Exclusive | HNA will sell its last Kai Tak parcel to Wheelock at a HK$550 million loss

HNA bought the plot in March 2017 for HK$7.44 billion, or HK$13,500 per square foot, and then incurred costs such as interest and foundation work