China Metal buys 10 more floors at Taipei's Asiaworld

China Metal Products Group (CMP Group, 勤美集團) has become Asiaworld Shopping Mall's (環亞購物廣場) largest property owner after it bought 10 floors of the building for NT$3.72 billion (US$121.1 million) on Thursday, following its purchase of the building's first and second floors late last year.

The Taipei-based CMP Group bought the building's sixth to fifteenth floors through its affiliate Precious Jade Construction (璞真建設), which made a bid of NT$3.72 billion yesterday at the public auction held by the Taipei District Court.

"CMP Group does not rule out the possibility of buying the building's remaining third to fifth floors if the prices are good," CMP Group spokeswoman Ho Pei-fen (何佩芬) said by telephone yesterday.

Ho the Taipei District Court was in the process of facilitating the auction of the building's third and fourth floors, but had not set an auction date yet. The building's fifth floor is privately owned.

CMP Group said there would be very few changes to the building as it was at full occupancy. The company will retain the businesses renting office space in the building and rent will be its major source of revenue.

The building's first and second floors have an average 5 percent annual yield rate and Ho said the CMP Group expects to see a similar annual yield rate of between 4 percent and 5 percent for the other ten floors.

Asiaworld Shopping Mall's first and second floors were first sold to TFMI Asset Management Co (TFMI AMC, 台產資產管理), which is a subsidiary of Taiwan Fire and Marine Insurance Co (TFMI, 台灣產物保險), at a price of NT$2.01 billion in January last year.

TFMI AMC then sold the property to Precious Jade Construction for NT$2.2 billion last December.

Asiaworld Shopping Mall is located in Taipei City's business district on the intersection of Nanjing E Road and Dunhua N Road. Precious Jade Construction's bidding price of NT$3.72 billion for the building's sixth to fifteenth floors, or 8,635 ping (28,500m2) of floor space, is equivalent to NT$430,000 per ping.

Sinyi Real Estate Inc (信義房屋), the nation's largest housing agency, said that Precious Jade Construction's bidding price was slightly lower than the average market price in the immediate area, which is around NT$500,000 per ping.

"However, as it was a foreclosure sale and the transaction was large in both quantity and amount, the price is still considered to be reasonable," Stanley Su (蘇啟榮), the director of Sinyi's research and development department, said by phone yesterday.

The CMP Group's shares rose NT$1.5, or 2.63 percent, to close at NT$58.5 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.