SOHO in US$526m Shanghai estate sale

Source: Xinhua | 2017-06-27

SOHO China said yesterday that it had sold a mixed-use office and retail complex in Shanghai’s Hongkou District to a group of buyers through equity transaction for 3.6 billion yuan (US$526 million).

It comes as the Beijing-based office developer continues its strategy to focus on prime office properties in Beijing and Shanghai.

Keppel Land China Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Keppel Land Ltd, Alpha Investment Partners Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Capital Holdings Pte, as well as a co-investor, jointly bought Hongkou SOHO, a 90,000-square meter complex in the Sichuan Road N. commercial precinct.

The average selling price of the building, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, was around 51,000 yuan a square meter based on leasable gross floor area — 53 percent higher than the cost, SOHO China said in a statement.

Launched in the last quarter of 2015, Hongkou SOHO is 97 percent occupied with major tenants including Panasonic, China Pacific Insurance and SOHO China’s shared office brand SOHO 3Q.

“Shanghai has seen the need for more high-quality, well located developments in the city,” said Christina Tan, Keppel Capital CEO and managing director of Alpha.