Goldin Financial Global Centre Being Acquired For HK$5.6bil
HONG KONG – Global investment firm PAG and Mapletree Investments have jointly entered into a deal to purchase the Goldin Financial Global Centre in Kowloon East for HK$5.6 billion (US$717 million), reported Bloomberg on Thursday noon (12 January, SGT).
On Thursday, the companies announced that they will establish a 50:50 joint venture (JV) to buy the 27-storey Grade A office building at 17 Kai Cheung Road in Hong Kong’s Kowloon Bay.
Notably, the selling price is lower than the office tower’s earlier estimated valuation, indicating bearish sentiment in Hong Kong’s commercial real estate market, including the office sector. In fact, data from CBRE showed that the amount of vacant upscale office space in the city surged to a record 13 million sq ft in 2022.
Previously, the commercial property comprising 3 levels of retail units on the lower levels and 24 office floors on the upper levels was owned by Goldin Financial Holdings, a distressed real estate developer controlled by former billionaire Pan Sutong. However, the office building was seized by creditors in 2020 after the developer failed to repay its loans.
Pan used to be the 4th wealthiest man in Asia, with a net worth of US$27 billion in 2015, before the stock price of his company sharply declined, while most of his assets were locked up as collateral for loans.
From May 2017 to September 2020, Pan and Goldin Financial Holdings’ debt snowballed to about HK$38 billion. Then in 2022, Hong Kong’s high court ordered Pan Sutong to file for bankruptcy after failing to repay US$1 billion in debts to creditors, including China Citic Bank.
