New World seeks to sell 11 Skies airport mall to boost liquidity: sources
The company has held early-stage discussions with the Hong Kong airport authority on its plans, the people said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. The talks are preliminary and subject to change, the people said.
The mall has been evaluated at a price range of HK$15 billion (S$2.5 billion) to HK$17 billion, one of the people said. That means selling at a loss considering the company invested HK$20 billion for the project.
The company and the airport authority did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The development of the 11 Skies mall has become a drag on New World, hampered by sluggish tenant sign-ups and concerns over weak foot traffic – fuelled in part by uncertainty around airlines' willingness to shift flights to Hong Kong's second airport terminal next to the complex.
Facing liquidity pressure, New World Development is accelerating asset sales – including in mainland China – as it rushes to shore up its balance sheet. The company is also seeking to raise as much as US$2 billion through a new loan facility, backed by its crown jewel, the Victoria Dockside complex in Hong Kong, underscoring the urgency of its capital-raising efforts.
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New World missed its self-imposed target to complete the US$2 billion loan deal, people familiar said earlier this week.
The company had HK$50 billion in completed investment properties in mainland China as of Dec 31, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Its prospects for selling the assets are clouded by the country's ongoing real estate downturn and slowing economy.
In Shanghai, the company is seeking 2.85 billion yuan (S$510 million) for its K11 tower, according to a property agent brochure.
Controlled by the family empire of Hong Kong tycoon Henry Cheng, New World has one of the highest debt burdens of any big developer in the city. Its net debt reached 95.5 per cent of shareholders' equity as of December, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
The funding environment for troubled and small Hong Kong developers has become increasingly challenging given that property prices in the city are now around a nine-year low. Banks are demanding stricter refinancing terms and asking for more credit enhancements.
The Cheng clan, worth an estimated US$21 billion as of March, proposed a semi-bailout to New World about two years ago, when it offered to take a subsidiary private and give the developer about HK$21.7 billion. The firm reported its first annual loss in 20 years for the 12 months ended June 2024.
Adrian Cheng, the eldest son of the family's patriarch Henry Cheng, stepped down as chief executive officer soon after that, and he left the board recently. The Cheng family also owns a stake in Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Adrian Cheng's siblings include Sonia Cheng, who looks after the Rosewood Hotel and co-leads the jewelry business. BLOOMBERG
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CNA
16 minutes ago
- CNA
Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines have secured lower tariffs with the US - lessons for other ASEAN states?
JAKARTA: With three Southeast Asia countries having struck trade deals with the United States, their approach offers a possible template for other countries in the region still trying to negotiate a lower tariff rate with the superpower, say analysts. They point to some similarities in what Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines have done as lessons their neighbours could potentially adopt: Offering zero tariffs on US goods, buying more US products and speaking directly to President Donald Trump. However, observers added that these factors may not apply in the same way to all Southeast Asia countries. Furthermore, Trade and investment expert Andry Satrio Nugroho from the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) said that it remains unclear whether the three deals announced so far would be the best, given that other Southeast Asian countries are still negotiating with Washington. 'We still don't know whether Vietnam and Indonesia are countries whose tariffs can be classified as much lower than those of other countries, especially in ASEAN,' he said, referring to the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 'Because there could be (better) opportunities for Thailand or Malaysia or other Southeast Asian countries.' Still, Andry and other experts CNA spoke to said Southeast Asian countries could look to the agreements that Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines each have with the US to negotiate their own favourable deals before Aug 1, the day Trump's tariffs will take effect. The Philippines is the latest Southeast Asian country to close a deal with the US. Trump announced the agreement on Tue (Jul 22) and said that the US would impose a 19 per cent tariff on goods from the Philippines, just below the 20 per cent he had threatened earlier this month, but still above the 17 per cent rate set in April. He had announced on Jul 15 that the US had struck an agreement with Southeast Asia's biggest economy, Indonesia. This deal placed a 19 per cent tariff on Indonesian goods entering the US, down from 32 per cent. Two weeks previously, Trump had announced that his country and Vietnam reached an agreement under which goods from Vietnam entering the US would be subject to a 20 per cent tariff, a sharp drop from the 46 per cent announced in April. He lauded Hanoi's willingness to charge zero per cent tariffs on US products. 'Vietnam will do something that they have never done before, give the United States of America total access to their markets for trade,' said Trump on Jul 2 in a social media post. CONCESSIONS AND AGREEMENTS FROM THE PHILIPPINES, INDONESIA AND VIETNAM Besides levying zero tariffs on US goods, both the Vietnam and Indonesia agreements contained a clause on transshipment, a practice involving the exports of goods originally from another country. In Vietnam's case, transshipped goods face a 40 per cent tariff, double the 20 per cent baseline rate, signalling Washington's intent to clamp down on workaround routes that have long benefitted Chinese exporters. Trump has accused Vietnam of being used to ship Chinese products so that Beijing can avoid the high tariffs the US imposes on China, according to Andry from INDEF. However, few details are known about the agreement between Hanoi and Washington, with some media outlets reporting that Vietnam is still attempting to negotiate a better deal. Some media reports also said that Trump's announcement caught Vietnam by surprise, as it had thought the tariffs agreed upon were 11 per cent. Like Vietnam, Indonesia will open its entire market to the US without any restrictions. Alongside the 19 per cent tariffs on Indonesian goods coming to his country, Trump announced that the archipelago will also purchase US$15 billion in US energy, US$4.5 billion in American agricultural products, and 50 Boeing jets, many of which are 777s. If there is any transshipment from a higher tariff country exported from Indonesia, then that tariff will be added to Indonesia's current baseline tariff. On Tuesday, the White House issued a joint statement with Indonesia saying that Indonesia has agreed to eliminate tariffs on more than 99 per cent of US goods and scrap all non-tariff barriers facing American firms. Among other things, Indonesia has agreed to remove export restrictions on industrial commodities, including critical minerals, according to the joint statement. It would also remove local content requirements, which require companies to use components made in Indonesia in their manufacturing processes for products entering the archipelago. Indonesia also will remove recently enacted pre-shipment inspections and verifications of US exports that have posed problems for US agricultural exports and contributed to a growing US farm trade deficit, the statement said. Negotiators for both countries would finalise the actual agreement in coming weeks, said a fact sheet issued by the White House. Speaking at a panel discussion on Trump's tariffs in Jakarta on Wednesday, Fithra Hastiadi, a senior advisor of the Indonesian Presidential Communication Office, said the agreement is a win-win for both countries. 'We consider this a first win,' said Fithra. 'But we're aiming to achieve - as the joint statement suggests - that some of our products that are not directly competing with the US, for example, nickel, coffee, cinnamon, spices, CPO (crude palm oil), other agricultural products, minerals, and also aircraft components, can be actually aimed to zero per cent.' However, Andry from INDEF and economic researcher Dandy Rafitrandi from the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) are both concerned about the lifting of restrictions on critical mineral exports to the US. Andry said this may trigger other countries to want the same, a move which Indonesia is unlikely to give, given that it is focused on its downstream industry. For the past decade, Indonesia has tried to process its raw minerals locally to create higher-value finished products as it aims to increase economic growth. "They could ultimately protest why the US is given special privileges while other countries aren't. So, it's considered unfair in terms of trade treatment,' he said. Meanwhile, the deal with the Philippines reportedly includes a zero tariff on goods such as imported US cars. Additionally, Marcos said the Philippines would import more soy, wheat and pharmaceutical products from the US. The Philippines president, whom Trump described as 'a very tough negotiator', said that there were still many details to be ironed out in terms of other products that could potentially be affected by the deal. 'One (percentage point) might seem like a very small concession. However, when you put it into real terms, it is a significant achievement,' he said. However, some critics called the deal "unfair", and expressed concern over the potential concessions to the US. '(The) 19 per cent against zero (per cent) tariffs is definitely not the most fair deal between decades-old friends or allies like the United States and the Philippines,' said Philippines Senator Panfilo Lacson in a statement on Wednesday. ZERO PER CENT TARIFFS: KEY TO NEGOTIATIONS? Economic researcher Dandy from CSIS said that Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines held several negotiation talks with the US before reaching an agreement. He added that the zero per cent tariff on US goods could be an example for other ASEAN countries to follow if they are looking to secure their own deals quickly. 'The key to negotiations between Indonesia, Vietnam and the US is the zero per cent tariff,' he said. He added that the exception so far is Japan, which also struck a deal with Washington on Tuesday, but managed to get a 15 per cent tariff - lower than the three Southeast Asian countries. Trump said the deal would include improved market access into Japan for American goods including automobiles, rice and other agricultural products. Japanese autos, which account for more than a quarter of the country's exports to the US, will see existing tariffs cut to 15 per cent from levies totalling 27.5 per cent previously. Japan will keep its existing tariffs on imports of U.S. agricultural products. The country will import more rice from the United States but within the existing tariff-free quota, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said. "Japan seems to be an exception, because they're clearly a source of investment from the United States," said Dandy. He added that the zero-tariff tactic is applicable to most countries in Southeast Asia, apart from Singapore, where US goods are already duty-free. Instead, Singapore may work on other deals, such as those involving weapon purchase, he said. But not every country may want to impose a zero tariff for the US, experts noted. Indonesia has reached a deal with the US because it is committed to buying US products, said Andry from INDEF, and it can do so because it is a large market. Smaller Southeast Asian countries may not be able to do this as they don't need large quantities of (imported) products, said Andry. However, he and Made Supriatma, a political expert and visiting research fellow at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said that Indonesia's talks to purchase 50 Boeing aircraft were already in place during the previous Joe Biden administration, so it is not new. 'The same goes for the export of agricultural products - that was also part of Biden-era agreements. Now Trump is trying to claim them as his own,' said Made. Manufacturing countries like Thailand may not be able to adopt the same approach of granting zero tariffs on US goods, said Andry. He said Thailand, which faces 36 per cent of tariffs, usually imports spare parts. It does not typically import whole products, since it has a strong domestic manufacturing sector, he added. In any case, Thai economist Somjai Phagaphasvivat said in an interview with the Bangkok Post that the Kingdom cannot offer the same kind of trade proposals to the US as Vietnam. Thailand cannot remove tariffs on all US imports because it has free trade agreements with fewer than 20 countries, while Vietnam has more than 20, of which most set import tariffs to zero, Somjai said. If it has to do so, the products for which import tariffs should be reduced to zero per cent should be those that Thailand does not produce domestically or can only produce in limited quantities, he said. Malaysia, on the other hand, is a major player in the semiconductor industry, said Dandy from CSIS, so it could offer the US something in this sector. This could be zero tariffs for US semiconductor goods imported into Malaysia or Malaysia purchasing large quantities of US products for its semiconductor industry. Its tariff was increased from its original 24 per cent to 25 per cent. While other Southeast Asian countries are still negotiating, and could ultimately even end up with a better agreement than Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, Dandy said, ASEAN should be more united moving forward. It should have negotiated with the US as a group, and not individually, because as a bloc, the countries are stronger and would have more bargaining power. Made, the visiting fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said that reaching a deal as a regional bloc will become more difficult now because individual countries are competing against each other. This will have consequences, he said. 'ASEAN countries are bound by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which aims to create a shared market,' said Made. 'If competition among member states increases, this cooperation could become even harder to realise.' DIRECT NEGOTIATIONS WITH TRUMP The leaders of the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia all spoke directly with Trump before an agreement was reached. Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is in the US this week, the first visit by an ASEAN head of state since Trump took office in January, while the leaders of Vietnam and Indonesia had phone calls with Trump. This could be key to getting a negotiation, but Andry from INDEF said that many countries must have done the same, in particular, phone calls. 'I think there are a lot of phone calls. I mean, let's not even talk about ASEAN - 75 countries are already nervous about facing these Trump tariffs,' said Andry. 'What is important to note is … who gets Trump's attention, in my opinion.' In early July, To Lam, Vietnam's General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, had a phone call with Trump during which he reiterated an invitation for the American leader to visit Hanoi. Meanwhile, Prabowo spoke with Trump on the phone during his foreign visits. Upon landing in Jakarta on Jul 16, Prabowo also said he will go to the US in September or October. So, whether these phone calls matter or not - or an actual visit is even better - remains to be seen, said Dandy from CSIS. 'It's very unpredictable. We can't decode what formula Donald Trump has because, frankly, no one can predict it,' he said. 'But if you say the template already exists, I think it does. Indonesia has tried Vietnam's template, and it works. So, maybe other countries can use the same template.'
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Ex-COO of Singaporean animal feed company charged with bribing manager at Malaysian firm
Find out what's new on ST website and app. Hooi Siew Yan was charged with one count of corruption, as well as two charges of falsification of accounts. SINGAPORE – The former chief operating officer (COO) of a Singaporean company that sells animal feed was charged on July 24 with handing bribes to a manager at a Malaysian company. Hooi Siew Yan, 68, was charged with one count of corruption, as well as two charges of falsification of accounts. According to a press release from Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), Hooi, a Singaporean, was the managing director of MJI Universal from July 2007 to November 2019, before becoming its COO until November 2022. According to company records, MJI's primary activity is classified under the category of wholesale agricultural raw materials and live animals, while a post on said the company specialised in the import and export of feed ingredients, such as feed products, grain and meal commodities. Between 2019 and 2020, on eight to 10 occasions in Kuala Lumpur, Hooi is alleged to have given bribes in the form of cash amounting to at least US$100,000 (S$128,000) to a procurement manager of a Malaysian company, identified in court documents as Chee Yew Teng. This was done through a middleman, identified as Ng Kwok Chyuan, and was an alleged reward to further the business interest between MJI and the Malaysian company named in court documents as Charoen Pokphand Malaysia. Under the Prevention of Corruption Act, a Singapore citizen who commits a corruption offence outside of Singapore may be dealt with as if that offence had been committed within Singapore, CPIB noted. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia Thai and Cambodia militaries clash at disputed border World Trump was told he is in Epstein files, Wall Street Journal reports Opinion The US dollar is down, but it has a lot going for it Singapore Judge asks prosecution for more information on Kpods in first case involving etomidate-laced vapes Singapore Singapore Oceanarium will enhance tourism while supporting sustainability: Grace Fu Singapore 5 teens arrested for threatening boy with knife, 2 charged with causing hurt Singapore Over 1.15 million Singaporeans aged 21 to 59 have claimed SG60 vouchers Opinion Cinemas struggle in a world that cannot sit still Between December 2020 and July 2022, Hooi allegedly instigated Ng to submit 35 invoices to MJI with inflated payments amounting to about US$72,500. The invoices were from a firm called NK Nutraceuticals, where Ng was director. Hooi is said to have done this is conspiracy with two other MJI employees – identified as Toru Sato and Chua Lay Peng – with the intent to defraud the Singaporean company. According to court records, Hooi did not indicate during the hearing on July 24 if he will be pleading guilty or claiming trial to his charges. His case is scheduled for a further mention in court on Aug 28. If convicted of corruption, Hooi can be jailed for up to five years, fined up to $100,000 or both. Those found guilty of engaging in a conspiracy to make false entries in papers can be jailed for up to 10 years, fined, or both, for each charge. As Hooi's two charges related to this offence involves two or more alleged incidents of the commission of the same offence, he can face twice the amount of punishment for each charge.
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
South Korea posts fastest economic growth since early 2024 as Trump tariffs loom
Find out what's new on ST website and app. South Korea's exports jumped the most in nearly five years, led by semiconductors. - South Korea's economy grew at the fastest pace in more than a year in the second quarter, surpassing market expectations, buoyed by rebounding consumer spending and a surge in exports driven by demand for technology. The upbeat growth data could give the Bank of Korea (BOK) more policy space, economists said, after it left interest rates unchanged this month but signalled the possibility of a cut in the next three months due to uncertainty from US tariffs. 'The BOK will have to raise its economic forecast for sure next month and it will provide more time to assess data on the financial stability front, which lowers the possibility of an August rate cut,' said Cho Yong-gu, an economist at Shinyoung Securities. Gross domestic product expanded a seasonally adjusted 0.6 per cent in the April-June period from the prior quarter when it contracted 0.2 per cent, advanced estimates showed on July 24. It was stronger than the median 0.5 per cent increase forecast in a Reuters poll and the fastest quarterly growth since the first quarter of 2024. The rebound comes as President Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June after a snap presidential election, made economic recovery a top priority. He introduced a supplementary budget, including a consumer voucher programme, to counter trade challenges and tepid consumption. South Korea held a snap presidential election on June 3, after the constitutional court in early April upheld former President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment over his failed martial law order, ending six months of political uncertainty. 'The rebound in consumer spending was the brightest spot,' Lee Jeong-hoon, an economist at Eugene Investment Securities, said. He expects stronger momentum in the second half, bringing annual growth above the central bank's May forecast of 0.8 per cent. 'Although exports will weaken, it won't be that severe, if the outcome of the trade negotiations is similar to that of Japan,' Mr Lee said. In the second quarter, private consumption rose 0.5 per cent over the quarter on improving consumer sentiment and a stock market rally, while construction and facility investments each fell 1.5 per cent. Exports jumped 4.2 per cent, led by semiconductors, after falling 0.6 per cent in the previous quarter amid US tariff uncertainty. It was the strongest quarterly performance since the third quarter of 2020. 'In the second quarter, the impact of tariffs was limited as semiconductor exports remained robust and front-loading increased ahead of the imposition,' a BOK official told a press conference, adding that tariffs would start to weigh in the third quarter. US President Donald Trump's 25 per cent 'reciprocal' tariffs against the trade-reliant economy introduced in early April are currently paused until Aug 1 for trade negotiations, while US-bound shipments in industries such as autos and steel have been hit by high product-specific tariffs. Year on year, Asia's fourth-largest economy grew 0.5 per cent in the second quarter, compared with no growth in the first quarter and a 0.4 per cent expansion expected by economists. REUTERS
