Hong Kong's Gale Well reels from market downturn, loses US$6.5 million on 2 asset sales
Hong Kong property investment firm Gale Well Group, which has been divesting assets, sold three shops this month, incurring a loss of more than HK$51 million (US$6.5 million) on two of them, as the city's retail real estate market remains mired in a downturn.
Gale Well sold a 2,780 sq ft street-level shop at King Kwong Street in Happy Valley for HK$28.8 million, nearly 40 per cent lower than the HK$46 million it paid in 2008, according to Land Registry data. The transaction was completed on May 23 through a holding company, Fine Keen Investment. Gale Well chairman Rita Tong Liu is a director at Fine Keen, according to the Companies Registry.
The company also sold a 1,537 sq ft shop on the ground floor of Haleson Building in Central for HK$38.8 million, according to property agents. The price represented a 47 per cent loss on the HK$72.8 million paid in 2011 by Parkmax Investment, according to the Land Registry. Liu is a Parkmax director.
Gale Well's third divestment was a 21,702 sq ft three-storey shop on Morrison Hill Road in Causeway Bay for HK$110 million, according to Savills, which handled the sale. The transaction resulted in a profit of 49 per cent for Keenplan International, which bought the property for HK$73.8 million in 2005, according to the Land Registry. Liu is a director of Keenplan.
Rita Tong Liu, chairman of Gale Well Group, pictured in June 2018. Photo: Edmond So
Last week, Gale Well appointed Savills as the agent for three shops in North Point, Causeway Bay and Wan Chai, which have a combined indicative price of HK$190 million.
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