Shimao Founder Looks To Divest HK Office Floors For HK$1.5bil
HONG KONG – As Chinese real estate developer Shimao Group grapples with an industry-wide cash crunch, its founder and Chairman Hui Wing Mau has put up for sale 2 office floors in the city, reported Bloomberg on Monday afternoon (17 January, SGT).
Based on sales material seen by the news outlet, 2 office floors in The Center tower in Hong Kong’s Central are being marketed to would-be buyers for a total of roughly HK$1.5 billion (S$259 million). Government land records show that the office properties are owned by firms that list Hui and his daughter Hui Mei Mei as directors.
Once deemed one of the safer Chinese property developers, Shimao has witnessed its bond prices and credit ratings plummet in recent weeks, as fears mount over the company’s financial well-being.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg Intelligence revealed that Shimao may be compelled to divest some commercial properties in Hong Kong at a loss to ease its liquidity problems.
In October 2021, Hui pledged one of the floors in The Center to DBS Bank’s Hong Kong outlet, according to land records. Previously, Hui was a member of a consortium that acquired a total of 9 office floors in the office building from CK Asset Holdings in 2018.
The personal wealth of Shimao Group’s Chairman declined from up to US$13 billion in August 2020 to just US$4.3 billion recently, based on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. In 2021, stock prices of the real estate developer plunged by around 79 percent.
