Li Ka Shing group eyes more S'pore CBD land

[phantom_opera]

Li Ka Shing group eyes more S'pore CBD land

Updated 09:19 AM Aug 29, 2012

HONG KONG - Billionaire Li Ka Shing's (picture) Singapore property joint venture may seek more land in the city's downtown to replicate its latest development that attracted global banks including Standard Chartered and Macquarie Group.

The venture, made up of Mr Li's Cheung Kong Holdings, Hongkong Land Holdings and Keppel Land, developed the Marina Bay Financial Centre for about S$4.5 billion, it said.

The shareholders may be interested in projects close to the existing development, said Mr Warren Bishop, chief executive officer of Raffles Quay Asset Management, which is owned by and manages the venture's Singapore properties.

"Given the right space, the developers will probably be keen to bid on some of those spaces," Mr Bishop said in Singapore yesterday. "The current perspective of the developers is to be central business district-based, if possible grow on this development here, so adjacent sites within this vicinity would be the most attractive."

The development is part of Singapore's effort to build a new downtown extension to boost its offering of office space and draw the world's biggest financial services companies. The property has also attracted tenants including Barclays and Nomura Holdings as more global banks relocated regional and global functions to Singapore.

Singapore's move to open up its financial sector after the 1997 Asian financial crisis helped boost demand for office space, especially in the business district, CBRE Group said.

The area known as Marina Bay is a 360-hectare development area created from reclaiming land off the sea fronting the banking district, and now includes Las Vegas Sands' Marina Bay Sands casino-resort with a convention centre that is able to accommodate 45,000 delegates. Land reclamation played a prominent role in the growth of Singapore's central business district, according to CBRE.

Monthly prime office rents averaged S$10.60 a square foot over the past five years, according to the property consulting company, lower than the peak of S$18.80 in mid-2008.

European companies account for 51 per cent of the space occupied in Marina Bay, followed by 22 per cent from Asia and 20 per cent from North America, according to CBRE's data.

Rents in Marina Bay have declined about 10 per cent to S$10 a square foot from a year earlier, Mr Moray Armstrong, executive director of office services at CBRE in Singapore, said. The European debt crisis may affect the office market over the next six to nine months, he said. BLOOMBERG

[Vincegoh]

season parking at MBFC is scary.. more than 600 pm.

Li Ka Shing group eyes more S'pore CBD land

Updated 09:19 AM Aug 29, 2012

HONG KONG - Billionaire Li Ka Shing's (picture) Singapore property joint venture may seek more land in the city's downtown to replicate its latest development that attracted global banks including Standard Chartered and Macquarie Group.

The venture, made up of Mr Li's Cheung Kong Holdings, Hongkong Land Holdings and Keppel Land, developed the Marina Bay Financial Centre for about S$4.5 billion, it said.

The shareholders may be interested in projects close to the existing development, said Mr Warren Bishop, chief executive officer of Raffles Quay Asset Management, which is owned by and manages the venture's Singapore properties.

"Given the right space, the developers will probably be keen to bid on some of those spaces," Mr Bishop said in Singapore yesterday. "The current perspective of the developers is to be central business district-based, if possible grow on this development here, so adjacent sites within this vicinity would be the most attractive."

The development is part of Singapore's effort to build a new downtown extension to boost its offering of office space and draw the world's biggest financial services companies. The property has also attracted tenants including Barclays and Nomura Holdings as more global banks relocated regional and global functions to Singapore.

Singapore's move to open up its financial sector after the 1997 Asian financial crisis helped boost demand for office space, especially in the business district, CBRE Group said.

The area known as Marina Bay is a 360-hectare development area created from reclaiming land off the sea fronting the banking district, and now includes Las Vegas Sands' Marina Bay Sands casino-resort with a convention centre that is able to accommodate 45,000 delegates. Land reclamation played a prominent role in the growth of Singapore's central business district, according to CBRE.

Monthly prime office rents averaged S$10.60 a square foot over the past five years, according to the property consulting company, lower than the peak of S$18.80 in mid-2008.

European companies account for 51 per cent of the space occupied in Marina Bay, followed by 22 per cent from Asia and 20 per cent from North America, according to CBRE's data.

Rents in Marina Bay have declined about 10 per cent to S$10 a square foot from a year earlier, Mr Moray Armstrong, executive director of office services at CBRE in Singapore, said. The European debt crisis may affect the office market over the next six to nine months, he said. BLOOMBERG

[DC33_2008]

Great potential in the Marina Area (D1) when you have big boys coming into the playing field. The nearby development will benefit when DTL 1 is open up in 2013. Understand Minister of Transport is visiting Telok Ayer mrt Stn today. No sure what was the event.

[Vincegoh]

Great potential in the Marina Area (D1) when you have big boys coming into the playing field. The nearby development will benefit when DTL 1 is open up in 2013. Understand Minister of Transport is visiting Telok Ayer mrt Stn today. No sure what was the event.

if the europe crisis worsens, i think many of the MNCs may scale back plans to expand their asian operations and rental demand for core CBD may taper off...

[DC33_2008]

I thought MNCs will be looking at this region to expand and scale back operation in Europe. They cannot be sitting down and doing nothing. Season parking in the Telok Ayer Area is much lower at $250 - $300pm.

if the europe crisis worsens, i think many of the MNCs may scale back plans to expand their asian operations and rental demand for core CBD may taper off...

[Vincegoh]

I thought MNCs will be looking at this region to expand and scale back operation in Europe. They cannot be sitting down and doing nothing. Season parking in the Telok Ayer Area is much lower at $250 - $300pm.

on the contrary quite a few european firms are scaling back and cutting business lines. problem is when their necks are on the chopping board, coupled with the shadow of tighter regulations and higher capital adequacy ratios, mgmt tend to be more short sighted and rather choose to shore up their home base (cutting asia ops immediately save them costs) rather than partake in a longer term strategic view towards Asia (which can often require substantial investments and have a long gestation period before they gain market share and clout).

sometimes cannot blame them also, as fickle minded investors and boards can be pretty merciless when it comes to the sack. back in 2009, Deutsche cut almost the entire asset mgmt arm (throwing the baby out together with the bathwater) and had to rebuild the team in 2010. trigger happy europeans.

the saving grace is that the asian firms are starting to step up and have formed a core base for SG. so there's still hope.. hopefully the crisis wont turn into a catastrophe and impact us on a larger scale. pray pray.

[DC33_2008]

It is quite normal in the financial sector. I can see a lot more Europeans and people from UK are looking for rental in the last few months.

on the contrary quite a few european firms are scaling back and cutting business lines. problem is when their necks are on the chopping board, coupled with the shadow of tighter regulations and higher capital adequacy ratios, mgmt tend to be more short sighted and rather choose to shore up their home base (cutting asia ops immediately save them costs) rather than partake in a longer term strategic view towards Asia (which can often require substantial investments and have a long gestation period before they gain market share).

sometimes cannot blame them also, as fickle minded investors and boards can be pretty merciless when it comes to the sack. back in 2009, Deutsche cut almost the entire asset mgmt arm (throwing the baby out together with the bathwater) and had to rebuild the team in 2010. trigger happy europeans.

[Vincegoh]

It is quite normal in the financial sector. I can see a lot more Europeans and people from UK are looking for rental in the last few months.

the thing is some of these firms really lack planning.

in 2008, when the crisis din seem so bad, UBS was still relocating senior members over to SG to helm key business lines. less than 6 mths later in 2009, they retrenched these same folks! and that's after spending a qtr million each to relocate the family over to SG (and need to do the same just to send them back to europe)... so half a million gone down drain for each expat..

hopefully, things will still remain relatively sanguine and a repeat of 2009 will not happen. else, who's to say these new europeans and UK expats will not be suffering the same fate?

[carbuncle]

Asia is still a growth market.

[Vincegoh]

Asia is still a growth market.

tat i agree.. time for home grown firms to step up to the mantle and squash all the si ang mohs.

but we still need time for these firms to grow to be more independent of the angmohs.. time that is relatively shaky considering the shxt that these angmohs are getting themselves into.

[carbuncle]

each has their own strengths and weaknesses. ang mo good at rara and hype. Asians good at money and execution. the successful business will combine both qualities...

[Blue]

each has their own strengths and weaknesses. ang mo good at rara and hype. Asians good at money and execution. the successful business will combine both qualities...

Agreed on this. But one more quality not to be missed for running a successful business in Asia - pulling strings and under table $$$