Chinese Developer Oceanwide Weighs Office Sale for $3 Billion
Chinese Developer Oceanwide Weighs Office Sale for $3 Billion
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese real estate firm Oceanwide Holdings Co. is seeking to offload its main office complex in Beijing, according to people familiar with the matter, in a bid to raise cash after a unit defaulted.
The company has been in talks to sell the Minsheng Financial Center in the heart of Beijing to China Taiping Insurance Group, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private and may not result in a deal. Oceanwide’s asking price has been a sticking point, with the two sides currently discussing a potential price tag of about 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion), one person said.
Representatives for Oceanwide and China Taiping declined to comment.
Having developed an international footprint with real estate projects in the U.S., Oceanwide ran into liquidity difficulties this year. After its offshore unit only made partial payment on a $280 million dollar bond in June, it embarked on a summer sale to recoup cash.
In April, the controlling shareholder of Oceanwide Holdings saw its years-long effort to buy American insurer Genworth Financial Inc. fall through.
In June, its unit agreed to sell tech company International Data Group to Blackstone Inc., which gave the unit an enterprise value of $1.3 billion. In July, it announced plans to sell no less than 20% shares in Minsheng Securities Co. Last month, its controlling shareholder China Oceanwide Holdings Group auctioned 4.53% of its stake to raise money.
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Located on Beijing’s prestigious Chang’an Avenue, Minsheng Financial Center is about 2 kilometers away from the Forbidden City.
At the proposed value, the transaction would rank as the biggest commercial property deal in China since the pandemic dampened the markets. In June, South Korean conglomerate SK Group sold its main office building in China for $1.4 billion, a record commercial property transaction after the outbreak, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc.
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With assistance from Bloomberg