The reported sale of the 30-story Uni-President International Building (統一國際大樓) and 50-year rights to the 31-story Taipei City Government’s MRT transfer station (市府轉運站) in upscale Xinyi District (信義) by President International Development Corp (PIDC, 統一開發) could be worth up to NT$50 billion (US$1.545 billion), a report said yesterday.
“These two buildings are like jewels in a crown,” Billy Yen (顏炳立), general manager at the international real estate consultancy DTZ (戴德梁行), said by telephone.
“As a result of tight supply in the district, interested buyers will jump at the deal even if the investment yield averages as low as 2.8 percent or 3 percent,” Gordon Kao (高銘頂), vice president of Savills Taiwan (第一太平戴維斯), said by telephone.
But Kao doubted if the owner would really sell the properties.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday that PIDC president Chang Kuo-kuang (張國光) showed interest in releasing the properties.
The paper quoted Chang as saying that PIDC had invested NT$12.5 billion on the build-operate-transfer (BOT) MRT station project. DTZ’s Yen estimated that the price tag of the BOT project sale could reach NT$20 billion.
The newspaper cited Chang as saying that an interested buyer had earlier offered NT$30 billion for the Uni-President International Building, although the offer was flatly rejected by the building’s eight business owners.
But Uni-President Enterprises yesterday said it had no plan to sell the properties in a stock exchange filing issued after the market closed.
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