Li Ka-shing’s (李嘉誠) CK Asset Holdings Ltd (長江實業) sold its 75 percent holding in The Center to a Chinese-led group for HK$40.2 billion (US$5.15 billion), a record for a Hong Kong office tower, the Chinese-language Hong Kong Economic Journal reported.
The deal will be announced in the near future, the Economic Journal reported, without saying where it got the information.
The name of the building might be changed, and some domestic investors are also part of the Chinese energy firm-led consortium, the newspaper said.
Photo: APF
Representatives at CK Asset did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Shares in CK Asset, Li’s flagship property company, rose 2.62 percent to HK$66.50 in Hong Kong trading yesterday.
The deal is the latest to signal Hong Kong’s red-hot property market shows no signs of slowing down.
LVGEM (China) Real Estate Investment Co (綠景地產) last week announced the HK$9 billion purchase of a building from Wheelock & Co (會德豐) a record per-square-foot price for a commercial building in Hong Kong’s Kwun Tong area.
Earlier this year, Henderson Land Development Co (恒基兆業地產) paid HK$23.3 billion for the first commercial land to be sold by the government in the Central district in more than 20 years.
For CK Asset, which recently changed its name from CK Property, the proceeds would give the company funds to diversify away from its main real-estate business.
CK Asset and affiliate CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd earlier this year agreed to buy a German maker of smart meters for about 4.5 billion euros (US$5.3 billion), building on the company’s expansion in infrastructure and energy.
CK Asset’s properties, which include the Cheung Kong Center and Hutchison House, spanned about 1.6 million square meters as of June, with more than 80 percent located in Hong Kong, according to the company.
The 73-story building in the Central business district is the territory’s fifth-tallest, according to the Skyscraper Center.
Hong Kong’s skyscrapers command the highest rents in the world, according to a report last month from Knight Frank, which said rental costs are more than four times higher than in Singapore.
Rental growth will continue to be robust on an influx of Chinese tenants, Knight Frank said.
News involving the sale of The Center has been trickling out for at least a year.
Additional reporting by AFP
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