Shopping mall developer CapitaMalls Asia is acquiring its third mall in Wuhan, China.

On a completed basis, the investment cost of the shopping mall is expected to be about S$228.3 million (RMB1,156 million/HK$1,413.5 million)

The developer had acquired the mall from a subsidiary of a state-owned construction enterprise, China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC).

Scheduled to be completed in 2014, the mall is located along Zhong Bei Road in Wuchang District and reaches out to 70,000 residents within a 5-kilometre radius.

It is the retail component of an integrated development, with a total gross floor area of about 70,700 square metres, excluding the carpark.

It sits on a 10,900 square metre site area, and has a land use tenure of 40 years, expiring in 2049.

CapitaMalls Asia currently has two malls in Wuhan: CapitaMall Minzhongleyuan, which is operational and CapitaMall Wusheng, which will be opened later this year. Both are located in the Hankou area.

Including this development, CapitaMalls Asia has 59 shopping malls in 36 cities in China, of which 43 are operational, and 16 are under development.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 6 Sep 2012

Shopping mall developer CapitaMalls Asia has added two new malls in Qingdao, China and Japan worth a total of S$662.2 million to strengthen its presence in the region.

CapitaMalls announced on Monday that it signed an agreement to acquire a site to develop its first shopping mall in Qingdao, China.

It was acquired from Qingdao Vanke City Real Estate Co. Ltd and Qingdao Shuangshan Gongmao Co. Ltd.

The site is located at the junction of Heilongjiang Road and Hefei Road in Sifang district.

CapitaMalls Asia plans to develop a six-storey shopping mall with a total gross floor area excluding car park of about 89,700 square metres.

Including land cost, the total development cost of the shopping mall is expected to be about RMB 1,457.0 million (S$294.9 million) or about RMB 16,235 (S$3,286) per square metre of gross floor area.

When completed in 2015, the development expects to reach 550,000 residents within a 5km radius.

Mr Lim Beng Chee, CEO of CapitaMalls Asia, said he is confident about retail growth prospects in Qingdao.

“Including this mall, we now have seven malls in Northeast China. This acquisition is in line with our strategy to expand our footprint in China and strengthen our presence in the cities and regions we are already in,” he said.

CapitaMalls Asia has also acquired a mall in Japan.

It announced on Monday that it is acquiring Olinas Mall in Tokyo for JPY 22.8 billion (S$367.3 million) from Tiger Eye Realty Yugen Kaisha.

Mr Lim said: “The addition of the Olinas Mall will also strengthen our portfolio in Japan and widen our retailers’ network in the region. We have seen an increased interest by Japanese retailers to expand overseas.”

Olinas Mall was completed in 2006, and is located in Kinshicho area in the Sumida Ward of Tokyo.

It is part of a large integrated development with a total gross floor area of about 583,000 square feet, with a total car parking capacity of 853 spaces.

Olinas Mall is multi-tenanted, with 100 per cent occupancy at present.

The mall is also priced at S$964 (HK$5,848) per square foot of net lettable area, and has a current net property income yield in excess of 6 per cent.

Olinas Mall reaches more than 1.2 million people within a 5km radius.

With this acquisition, CapitaMalls Asia now has eight malls in Japan.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 30 Jul 2012

CapitaMalls Asia Limited and Suzhou Industrial Park Jinji Lake Urban Development Co., Ltd (SIPJUD) announced today that they marked a key milestone by breaking ground for the largest shopping mall in East China.

Owned by the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) government, SIPJUD is the master developer of the SIP Central Business District (“CBD”), known as the Suzhou Centre. The ground-breaking ceremony of the mall was held yesterday in conjunction with the ground-breaking of Suzhou Centre.

CapitaMalls Asia and SIPJUD are developing a seven-storey shopping mall and two Grade A office towers on a prime site in Suzhou Centre in the heart of the western CBD of SIP, next to the scenic Jinji Lake and near the renowned traditional city centre in Suzhou. It is also directly connected to two metro lines (Line 1, which started operations last month and the future Line 5).

The total development cost of the project is expected to be about RMB6,740 million (S$1,331 million / HK$8,329 million). CapitaMalls Asia and SIPJUD each hold a 50 per cent stake in the joint venture.

The shopping mall will have a total gross floor area (GFA) of about 290,000 square metres, while the two office towers are expected to have a total GFA of about 60,000 sq m.

The retail portion will therefore account for about 83 per cent of the development’s total GFA of about 350,000 square metres, excluding car park spaces.

Catering to upper middle and high-income shoppers, the shopping centre offerings will include luxury brands, high-street fashion brands and family entertainment.

The mall will also house an Olympic-size ice rink and a cineplex.

The shopping mall will serve a catchment population of over 4.5 million in Suzhou as well as a total of about 12 million residents in the Greater Suzhou region.

CapitaMalls Asia said it has acquired the remaining 73.71 percent stakes each in La Park Mizue in Tokyo, Izumiya Hirakata in Osaka and Coop Kobe in Kobe.

The acquisition price for the three shopping malls was about S$217.4 million.

This represents a 16.9 percent discount to the malls’ latest valuations as at December 2011.

CapitaMalls Asia, the retail arm of Southeast Asia’s biggest developer CapitaLand, acquired the malls from CapitaMalls Japan Fund in which it owns a 26.29 percent stake.

It currently has seven shopping malls in six cities in Japan.

Besides these three shopping malls, the others are Vivit Square and Narashino Shopping Centre in Tokyo; Chitose Mall in Chitose and Ito Yokado Eniwa in Eniwa, Hokkaido.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 20 Feb 2012

Singapore shopping mall developer CapitaMalls Asia has reported a net profit of S$205.4 million for its fourth quarter ended December – up 42.6 per cent from the previously-reported S$144 million last year.

In a stock exchange filing, the company said revenue grew S$66.3 million from S$55.2 million in the same period last year, driven by strong growth in markets like Singapore, China and Malaysia.

In particular, rental revenue from Queensbay Mall in Malaysia acquired in April last year and higher income from fund management entities boosted the earnings.

For the full year, CapitaMalls Asia booked an 8.1 per cent increase in its net profit to S$456.0 million from S$421.9 million.

With more than 50 per cent of its China malls expected to be operational this year, the mall developer said 2012 will be “an inflection point”.

It has 56 malls in China with 42 currently in operation. It said it will continue to focus on its 3 key markets in Singapore, China and Malaysia

“We target to open nine malls this year – seven in China and two in Singapore. With our strong balance sheet and low gearing, we remain ready and flexible to capitalise on acquisition opportunities,” said Lim Beng Chee, chief executive officer of CapitaMalls Asia.

He added: “We have cash of last year of close to a billion and we raised another S$400,000 in the beginning of the year, so we have about S$1.4 billion cash; that is actually sufficient for us have a strong balance sheet to grow the business.”

The board of CapitaMalls Asia has proposed a final dividend of 1.5 Singapore cents per share.

Including the interim dividend of 1.5 Singapore cents declared in July 2011, the proposed total dividend for full year 2011 is 3.0 Singapore cents.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 10 Feb 2012