Robert Kuok’s Kerry Properties Wins Prime Shanghai Site For $1.2 Billion As Part Of Landmark Project

Kerry Properties, the real estate arm of Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok’s Kuok Group, has won a tender for a site in central Shanghai for 8.8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) as part of a mixed-use development project in the Chinese financial hub.

The newly acquired site spans 44,356 square meters in Huangpu, the central district of Shanghai that houses major attractions such as the Bund and the East Nanjing Road shopping area, Kerry Properties said in a statement on Tuesday.

Together with an adjacent parcel Kerry Properties acquired for around $2 billion in January last year, the development will deliver a gross floor area of up to 506,500 square meters, according to the company. The project will offer high-rise apartments overlooking the Bund and Shanghai’s traditional alleyway houses called shikumen, along with offices, hotel and retail space.

The development “is a rare business development opportunity for the group to grow its development properties pipeline in a tier-one city with robust demand, and to build its premium investment properties portfolio in Shanghai’s proven downtown core,” Kerry Properties said in a filing with Hong Kong’s stock exchange. The Huangpu project is expected to be completed in 2027, the company said in its earnings report.

Hong Kong property developers have been raising their bets in Shanghai in recent years thanks to the government’s urban redevelopment plan. Earlier in 2021, Kerry Properties said it had paid about $836 million for a mixed-use development site in Shanghai’s Pudong business district in a joint venture with GIC Real Estate, the property arm of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.

Meanwhile, Hongkong Land, the flagship real estate unit of Hong Kong-headquartered conglomerate Jardine Matheson, has invested $8.4 billion as part of a joint venture to transform Shanghai’s West Bund into a new financial hub. And Shui On Land, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Vincent Lo, has also recently expanded its Shanghai portfolio with a plot in Yangpu district it bought for roughly $350 million through a joint venture.

Kerry Properties is the property unit of Kuok Group, the Malaysia-based empire founded by the country’s richest person Robert Kuok that has businesses spanning across logistics, hospitality and energy, among others. Kerry Properties’ portfolio includes a gross floor area of more than 4.5 million square meters in mainland China, Hong Kong and overseas as of December last year. The company is run by Kuok’s youngest son, Kuok Khoon Hua, who became chairman in May last year.

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