Archive for Uncategorized
Mumbai Home Price Recovery Is Two Years Away, Indiabulls Says
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A glut of new properties is weighing on prices, firm says
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Indiabulls Asset seeks to raise $300 million in property fund
Home prices in Mumbai may take a couple of years to resume gains amid a glut of unsold properties, according to Indiabulls Asset Management Co., an investor in residential projects.
Mumbai’s property sales have been sluggish as prices in India’s most expensive market continue to hover near a record reached in December 2014, crimping affordability and denting demand. Even as sales picked up in the first quarter, Mumbai still had 266 million square feet of unsold homes, according to Liases Foras Real Estate Ratings & Research Pvt…
Fosun Plans Asset Sales in Reversal of $15 Billion M&A Spree
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Chinese group could sell up to $6 billion in assets, CEO says
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Retrenchment makes Fosun outlier in record year for China M&As
Fosun Group, one of China’s most acquisitive conglomerates, is preparing to sell as much as 40 billion yuan ($6 billion) in assets as it turns its focus towards raising its credit rating to above junk.
As it steps back from the more than $15 billion in overseas purchases made or announced since 2010, the group plans to disclose the disposals between now and the end of 2017, Liang Xinjun, chief executive officer of flagship unit Fosun International Ltd., said in an interview aired on Bloomberg Television on Monday.
JLL Tapped to Lease 5-Building Suburban Complex
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Centre Pointe II, West Chester, Ohio
Cincinnati—JLL has been chosen to lease Centre Pointe, a five-building office complex in West Chester Township owned by Oaktree Capital Management and Hines.
Located along Interstate 75 in West Chester Township, the 640,000-square-foot portfolio comprises five buildings completed in stages between 2000 and 2007. Historically the property has been more than 90 percent leased, but a shift in occupancy has brought several large blocks of space to market.
India IPO Returns Beat U.S. as Funds Chase High-Growth Companies
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Forty-seven IPOs raise $1.5b this year, twice the sum in 2015
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Companies tapping growing assets with funds amid market rally
Amid India’s bull market celebration, it’s the newcomers that are having the biggest parties.
The 47 IPOs priced this year have returned an average 41 percent, more than four times the climb in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The gain is double the 19 percent mean for U.S. deals, and ahead of the 9 percent offered by first-time sales in Europe, the figures show.
Former Irish Bankers Go to Prison After Longest Trial
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hree sentenced to eight years and three months in total
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All three convicted of conspiring to defraud customers
Three former senior Irish bankers were sentenced to a total of more than eight years in prison in Dublin after being convicted of conspiring to defraud customers and investors during the financial crisis.
Irish Life & Permanent Plc’s former chief executive officer, Denis Casey, and two former executives at Anglo Irish Bank Corp., Willie McAteer and John Bowe, were convicted in June after the longest criminal trial in the country’s history. All three had pleaded innocent to charges they helped created a false impression of the financial health of Anglo Irish Bank through facilitating a circular payment in 2008…
Office Tower Trades Near Downtown Dallas
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One Victory Park, Dallas
Dallas—Clarion Partners, on behalf of a commingled fund advised by the firm, has purchased a Class A office building in downtown Dallas, from Hines and its partner, UST XVI, a German investment fund managed by Estein & Associates USA, Hines announced Wednesday. The financials on the transaction were not disclosed.
U.K. Business Lending Forecast to Shrink Until 2019, EY Says
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Financial services outlook hurt by post-Brexit vote economy
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Stock of company loans seen falling to lowest since 2005
Business loans in the U.K. will shrink to the lowest in more than a decade in the next couple of years as weaker economic prospects in the aftermath of the vote to leave the European Union damp demand, according to the EY ITEM Club.
Total lending to companies will contract 1.8 percent next year and another 1 percent in 2018 before finally recovering the following year, the organization said in a report released on Monday. By then, the total stock of business loans will have dropped to 376 billion pounds ($497 billion), the lowest since 2005, EY said…
China Factory Gauge Signals Deterioration as Property Boost Ebbs
Posted by: | CommentsChina’s official factory gauge unexpectedly fell below the dividing line between improvement and deterioration, signaling a debt-fueled growth rebound may be losing steam.
The manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 49.9 last month, the statistics bureau said Monday, below June’s 50, which was also the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The non-manufacturing PMI was at 53.9 compared with 53.7 in June. Numbers below 50 indicate conditions are getting worse.
The sub-50 reading was the first since February, casting doubt on the durability of an economic stabilization that’s been boosted by a property market recovery and state-led investment…
Morning Agenda: Consumer Agency Proposes New Rules for Debt Collectors
Posted by: | CommentsCONSUMER AGENCY PROPOSES NEW RULES FOR DEBT COLLECTORS There will be some respite for people being hounded for debt as federal regulators are preparing to significantly strengthen the rules that govern debt collection for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Under proposed regulations, debt collection companies will have to provide fuller documentation of the debt they are trying to collect. They must also make it clear how a consumer can dispute the debt and observe state statutes of limitations that bar them from legally pursuing older debts.
Plans Take Shape for $1.5B Gulf Coast Service Port
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Port Cameron, La.
Cameron, La.—The vision is a large one: a new, $1.5 billion, private deepwater energy-services port on the Gulf of Mexico to support offshore oil and gas development in the Gulf. And so is the site: roughly 500 acres to start, with a further 750 acres available for later expansion.
That’s Port Cameron, La., just south of Lake Charles, three miles from the Gulf of Mexico, 19 miles from the Intracoastal Canal and right on the Calcasieu River Ship Channel.
Credit Suisse Defeats Lawsuit Over Loans to High-End Resorts
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Property owners said banks relied on inflated appraisals
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Judge rules bank can’t be blamed for defaults on loans
Credit Suisse Group AG won a lawsuit by property owners in four upscale resorts in the western U.S. who alleged that the investment bank funded loans based on inflated appraisals of the developments that caused their financial ruin.
A federal judge in Boise, Idaho, agreed with Credit Suisse and the appraiser, Cushman & Wakefield Inc., that the property owners had failed to produce evidence that the loans or the appraisals from 2004 to 2006 caused the resorts to fail and that there was no need for the case to proceed to trial…
Hedge Fund Calls New York Times Article a ‘Distortion’
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Ray Dalio, the founder and chairman of Bridgewater Associates. CreditLucy Nicholson/Reuters
Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, released a statement on Thursday taking issue with what it called “significant mischaracterizations” and a “distortion” of some of its business practices and culture that were described in an article in The New York Times.
Co-Working Goes Viral in SoCal
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BioLabs San Diego
San Diego—A new co-working space is making its debut in the San Diego market—the San Diego life sciences market, that is. BioLabs, a membership-based network of shared lab facilities, and life sciences industry trade association Biocom recently introduced BioLabs San Diego, a co-working laboratory and office destination for startups in a city that holds the distinction of being one of the country’s top life sciences clusters.
Homeownership Rate in the U.S. Drops to Lowest Since 1965
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Share fell to 62.9% in second quarter from 63.5% in the first
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Rising prices putting purchases out of reach for many renters
The U.S. homeownership rate fell to the lowest in more than 50 years as rising prices put buying out of reach for many renters.
The share of Americans who own their homes was 62.9 percent in the second quarter, the lowest since 1965, according to a Census Bureau report Thursday. It was the second straight quarterly decrease, down from 63.5 percent in the previous three months…
Homeownership Rate in the U.S. Drops to Lowest Since 1965
Montecito Adds 276 KSF to Medical Building Portfolio
Posted by: | CommentsBill Gross Is Running His $1.5 Billion Mutual Fund by Himself — Again
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Bill Gross
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Kumar Palghat will co-run Janus Short Duration Income Fund
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Gross’s global fund is up 3.7% in 2016, beating 65% of peers
Bill Gross is running his $1.5 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund by himself — again.
The legendary money manager is losing his No. 2, Kumar Palghat, who joined Gross as co-manager last July. Palghat will become co-manager of a new exchange-traded fund, Janus Short Duration Income ETF, while continuing to oversee other mutual funds, according to a statement Thursday.
JCDecaux Moves North American HQ to Empire State Building
Posted by: | CommentsThe world’s number one outdoor advertising agency takes a top spot in New York’s most iconic building.
The Empire State Building
New York—Empire State Realty Trust announced thatJCDecaux, the world’s top outdoor advertising company, has leased two full floors, totaling roughly 47,000 square feet, in the iconic building. The firm is moving its North American headquarters into the 73rd and 74th floors of the 102-story tower.
The French advertising giant was represented by Snezana Anderson, Brad Needleman and Bernhard Weinstabel of CBRE, while Ryan Kass, Fred Posniak and Shanae Ursini of ESRT, along with Paul Glickman, Jonathan Fanuzzi, Simon Landmann, Kip Orban and Harley Dalton of JLL negotiated the lease on behalf of the landlord…
Home Capital Drops Most Since Facing Mortgage-Fraud Pain in 2015
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Lender’s earnings hurt by operating losses at CFF Bank
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Company results miss analysts’ estimates for second quarter
Home Capital Group Inc. slipped the most in a year after reporting second-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates.
The non-bank mortgage lender tumbled 6.7 percent to C$29.42 at 1:32 p.m. in Toronto trading after earlier falling as much as 9.8 percent. That was the biggest decline since the shares fell 21 percent in July 2015, when Home Capital announced a drop in originations after it sidelined brokers who submitted loan documents with falsified data…
Brooklyn Office Developers Chasing Tech Tenants Face a Slowdown
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VC financing for New York firms fell 40% in the second quarter
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Projects include former Domino Sugar plant, Schlitz Brewery
Developers racing to turn Brooklyn into a thriving technology office market may be finding Manhattan a less-fruitful target for poaching tenants.
Leasing in Manhattan by tech, advertising, media and information tenants — known to real estate brokers by the acronym TAMI — fell in the second quarter to the lowest level in more than three years, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Such firms added just 1.21 million square feet (112,400 square meters) in the borough. That’s a 43 percent drop from the space leased in the first quarter…
Industry Veteran Joins Paragon in B’More
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Stanley Meros, Paragon Commercial Property Management
Baltimore—Regional commercial real estate services firm KLNB LLC recently announced the naming of Stanley Meros as director of business development for Paragon Commercial Property Management, the company’s third-party property management arm.
In his new position, Meros will be in charge of creating property management opportunities among development companies and institutional and private investors, as well as owners and end-users of commercial properties. He will also serve Paragon by strengthening the management division’s relationships with the owners of the arm’s current 125-property portfolio…
Tempur Sealy Surges After U.S. Housing Market Helps Fuel Results
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Mattress company’s second-quarter earnings top estimates
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U.S. housing starts reached a four-month high in June
Tempur Sealy International Inc. shares jumped the most in almost four years after the mattress company’s earnings topped estimates, helped by a rise in U.S. home construction.
Second-quarter profit rose to 92 cents a share, excluding some items, the Lexington, Kentucky-based company said on Thursday. That beat the 69 cents estimated by analysts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg…
Tempur Sealy Surges After U.S. Housing Market Helps Fuel Results
An Auction House Learns the Art of Shadow Banking
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Jho Low.
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Lending by Sotheby’s tripled to $682 million in four years
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Malaysian financier in money-laundering probe got a loan
A year before he got caught up in a U.S. money-laundering investigation, Malaysian financier Jho Low was looking to borrow more than $100 million without having to answer all the nosy know-your-customer questions required by U.S. banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co.
LionTree Hires JPMorgan Banker to Lead European Division
Posted by: | CommentsFresh off helping Verizon buy Yahoo for $4.8 billion, the boutique investment bank LionTree Advisors has added a senior banker to its organization.
The firm has hired Jake Donavan, a high-ranking banker at JPMorgan Chase, as the president of its European operation.
The move is the latest by LionTree as it seeks to capitalize on a number of prominent assignments. The firm, founded by the former UBS senior banker Aryeh Bourkoff four years ago, has played a role in major takeovers like Charter Communications’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable, Starz’s sale to Lionsgate and Outerwall’s sale to Apollo Global Management…
Pending Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Rise Less Than Forecast
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Gain led by rebound in Northeast after weakness in May
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Lack of supply, rising prices limiting demand, NAR’s Yun says
Contracts to purchase previously owned U.S. homes rose less than forecast in June as a lack of supply and rising prices offset the benefits from historically low mortgage rates, according to figures released Wednesday from the National Association of Realtors in Washington.
Key Points
- Pending home sales gauge rose 0.2 percent after falling 3.7 percent the prior period (median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists was 1.2 percent gain)
Harvard Endowment’s Blyth Resigns From $37.6 Billion Fund
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Stephen Blyth.
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Chief operating officer Robert Ettl continues as interim CEO
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David Barrett Partners hired to find replacement, school says
Stephen Blyth, who was named the investing chief of Harvard University’s $37.6 billion endowment 18 months ago to improve the fund’s lackluster performance, resigned for personal reasons, the university said.
Blyth, 48, who has been on an unspecified temporary medical leave since May 23, departs immediately, Harvard Management Co., the school’s investment management arm, said in a statement Wednesday. Chief Operating Officer Robert Ettl will remain as interim chief executive officer, and HMC said its board has hired David Barrett Partners to conduct a search for Blyth’s replacement…
Carlyle Names First Woman as Co-Leader of Buyout Arm
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Sandra J. Horbach will be promoted from managing director. CreditYana Paskova for The New York Times
Early in her career, Sandra J. Horbach earned the distinction of being the first woman to be named a partner at a major American private equity firm when she ascended to that role at Forstmann Little & Company.
Halcon Resources, U.S. Oil Explorer, Files for Bankruptcy
Posted by: | CommentsHalcon Resources Corp., the oil and gas explorer founded by wildcatter Floyd Wilson, filed for bankruptcy as part of a restructuring agreement reached with key lenders in May.
The agreement would eliminate $1.8 billion in debt and $222 million in preferred stock, the Houston-based company said at the time. On June 10, Halcon said a majority of holders had accepted the restructuring, which will be implemented through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The filing Wednesday in Delaware federal bankruptcy court listed $3.12 billion in debt and $2.85 billion in assets…
Halcon Resources, U.S. Oil Explorer, Files for Bankruptcy
Here’s What Wall Street Is Saying About Apple’s Earnings Report
Posted by: | CommentsOptimistic overall, but not without some caution.
Apple Inc. released its highly-anticipated quarterly results after the bell yesterday, and analysts and investors seem to like what they see.
The company reported fiscal third-quarter revenue that beat expectations, and while iPhone unit sales fell 15 percent from a year earlier, that exceeded the average estimate on Wall Street. Shares are trading about 7 percent higher in the pre-market, showing signs of making a bigger move higher following a tough few months…
Here’s What Wall Street Is Saying About Apple’s Earnings Report
Workspace Property Trust Buys Office, Flex Portfolio for $969M
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Thomas Rizk of Rizk Ventures
Philadelphia—For the second time in less than a year,Workspace Property Trust has made a major deal withLiberty Property Trust, acquiring 108 office and flex buildings in four states for approximately $969 million, in a strategic relationship with global investment firmSafanad.
Hedge Fund Wins Vote for Aussie Money Manager to Shut China Fund
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AMP Capital will use KPMG to help formulate wind-up strategy
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LIM has been pushing to narrow the China fund’s discount
Hedge fund LIM Advisors is set to succeed in its year-long push to force AMP Capital Investors Ltd., one of Australia’s largest money managers, to shutter its China fund that has been trading at a steep discount.
LIM, a Hong Kong-based firm which owns 10 percent of the AMP Capital China Growth Fund, is set to win the vote at an extraordinary general meeting Thursday, based on proxy results, AMP Capital said in a statement Wednesday. The China fund has a market value of A$434 million ($326 million)…
Turkey Extends Crackdown on Dissent to Coup Analysis by Brokers
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Capital Markets Board files criminal complaint for report
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Ak Investment strategist accused of insulting Turkish leader
Turkey is widening its crackdown on dissent since a failed coup to include commenting on how much damage it’s causing.
The head of research at one of Turkey’s largest brokerages was stripped of his license over a report analyzing the impact of the July 15 putsch. The Capital Markets Board said Mert Ulker failed to “fulfill his responsibilities” in publishing his analysis for Ak Investment, the brokerage arm of Turkey’s second-largest bank. He also faces criminal charges, including under articles of the penal code against insulting the president, the nation or its institutions…
The Stein Mart Building Changes Hands in Jacksonville
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The Stein Mart Building
Jacksonville—Lingerfelt CommonWealth Realty Partners LLC has announced the acquisition of The Stein Mart Building, a 196,649-square-foot Class A office asset located in downtown Jacksonville. Lingerfelt CommonWealth purchased the high-rise from Parkway Properties for $23.6 million.
The Stein Mart Building, currently 95.8 percent occupied, is a 10-story office building equipped with a fitness center and six-story parking garage featuring 510 spaces. Headquarters to Stein Mart Inc., the Stein Mart Building is also home to more than a dozen additional companies, which make up its diversified and stabilized tenant roster of long-term lease contracts…
Equity Residential Falls After Third Revenue-Forecast Cut
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Landlord cites weakness in New York, San Francisco markets
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Apartment owners dealing with more supply, sluggish job growth
Shares of apartment landlord Equity Residential fell the most since March after the company cut its revenue forecast for the third time this year, citing greater weakness than it anticipated in the Manhattan and San Francisco rental markets.
Equity Residential expects revenue growth from properties open at least a year to be 3.5 percent to 4 percent in 2016, according to the company’s second-quarter earnings statement Tuesday. The Chicago-based real estate investment trust in late April lowered the upper limit to 5 percent, then reduced it again in June to 4.5 percent…
Silicon Valley Elites Get Home Loans With No Money Down
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Lenders are courting tech workers in the most expensive market
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Worries by some about fueling another bubble, and inequality
It turns out that even the well-off need help in a housing market as crazy as the one in the San Francisco Bay area, and lenders are elbowing each other in a rush to provide it.
They’re courting Silicon Valley workers with tailored loans, guaranteed 24-hour approval and financial-planning services. Social Finance Inc. has deals with Google and other top technology companies that allow it to market to new hires. First Republic Bank — which gave Facebook Inc. billionaire Mark Zuckerberg a 1.05 percent interest-rate mortgage — has opened branches in Facebook and Twitter Inc. headquarters. San Francisco Federal Credit Union will finance 100 percent of houses costing up to $2 million…
Equus Capital Buys Suburban Philly Trophy Asset
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1000 Chesterbrook Blvd. in Berwyn, Pa.Fund Lawyer Who Worked With Goldman Holds 1MDB Clues, U.S. Says
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1MDB officer who arranged bond deals is said to be Jasmine Loo
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Singled out by U.S. for $5 million diverted to her from fund
She was the general counsel for Malaysia’s 1MDB investment fund. She was also 1MDB’s liaison to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the global bank that helped it raise $6 billion.
After one of the big sales led by Goldman Sachs, $5 million of the cash raised for 1MDB traveled through shell companies and ended up in her Swiss bank account, the U.S. said in complaints filed last week.
Wall Street’s Mr. Risk Thrives on Traders’ Ignorance of Politics
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Ian Bremmer.
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Ian Bremmer recast academic discipline as financial product
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Growing cottage industry turns instability into income source
It was 1998 and Russia was on the verge of gaining investors’ confidence when oil tumbled to nearly $10 a barrel.
Foreign creditors dismissed talk of a collapse. Russia had the money to pay its debts, they said, and it wouldn’t sacrifice its credibility. Then-President Boris Yeltsin’s appointment of a young reformer to manage the crisis was proof.
Morning Agenda: Both Parties Want to Rein In Big Banks
Posted by: | CommentsBOTH PARTIES WANT TO REIN IN BIG BANKS The Democratic convention has not started with quite the display of unity that Hillary Clinton would have hoped for to stand in contrast to the Republican convention last week, but that’s not the only thing the two parties have in common. Both have inserted the Glass-Steagall rule into their platforms. The act has only a slim chance of returning and it would probably lead to a loss of jobs as lending slows, Andrew Ross Sorkin writes.
D.R. Horton Adds Lower-Cost Freedom Homes Brand for Retirees
Posted by: | CommentsD.R. Horton Inc., the largest U.S. homebuilder, has added affordable homes for seniors to its lineup of brands, which already includes entry-level and luxury properties.
Freedom Homes will begin in Florida, Texas and Arizona and be open in at least eight markets by the end of fiscal 2016, according to a statement Tuesday. The company didn’t provide details on pricing.
D.R. Horton has been having success with its lower-cost Express homes that, while geared to younger people, are gaining popularity with seniors in retiree markets such as Florida, the company said on its earnings conference call last week…
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Rose Less Than Forecast in May
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Pacific Northwest region takes over lead in price appreciation
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San Francisco led six cities seeing monthly price decreases
Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose less than projected in May from a year earlier, signaling both buyers and sellers had the potential to benefit during the busy selling season, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data reported Tuesday.
Key Points
- 20-city property values index increased 5.2 percent from May 2015 (forecast was 5.5 percent) after climbing 5.4 percent in the year through April
- National home-price gauge rose 5 percent from 12 months earlier
At World’s Largest Hedge Fund, Sex, Fear and Video Surveillance
Posted by: | CommentsRay Dalio, the billionaire founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, likes to say that one of his firm’s core operating principles is “radical transparency” when it comes to airing employee grievances and concerns.
Firm U.S. Housing Market Seen in June New-Home Sales: Chart
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Sales of new U.S. homes climbed 3.5 percent to a 592,000 annualized pace, the fastest since February 2008, Commerce Department data showed Tuesday in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 560,000 rate. Figures for May were revised higher to a 572,000 pace…
Firm U.S. Housing Market Seen in June New-Home Sales: Chart
NYC, San Francisco Rental Slowdowns Hit Biggest Apartment REITs
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Equity Residential lowers revenue guidance for third time
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Landlords contending with more supply, sluggish job growth
Apartment construction in New York and San Francisco is taking its toll on landlords, with Equity Residential, the largest publicly traded U.S. multifamily owner, cutting its revenue forecast for the third time this year.
Equity Residential expects revenue growth from properties open at least a year to be 3.5 percent to 4 percent in 2016, according to the company’s second-quarter earnings statement Tuesday. The Chicago-based real estate investment trust in late April lowered the upper limit to 5 percent, then reduced it again in June to 4.5 percent…
Historic Boston CBD Office Building Trades for $42M
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70 Franklin Street, Boston
Boston—NGFK Capital Markets recently closed on the sale of 70 Franklin Street in Boston on behalf of seller GLL Real Estate Partners. Deka bought the 85,977-square-foot property for $42.1 million. The NGKF Boston Capital Markets team that oversaw the transaction was led by U.S. Head of Capital Markets Robert Griffin, Executive Managing Director Matthew Pullen and Vice Chairman Edward Maher.
Home Sales Jump, Confidence Stable: U.S. Economic Takeaways
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Demand for new houses climbs to more than eight-year high
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Consumers more confident about current state of economy
What you need to know about Tuesday’s U.S. economic data:
NEW-HOMES SALES (JUNE)
- Rose 3.5 percent to 592,000 annualized pace (forecast was 560,000), strongest since February 2008
- Regionally, sales up 10.9 percent in West and 10.4 percent in Midwest to highest level since November 2007
- Previously reported decrease in May was revised away, now unchanged at 572,000 rate
- Supply of homes dropped to 4.9 months, leanest since February 2015…
The Latest Housing Data Is Bad News for People Predicting Recession
Posted by: | CommentsNo need to lose sleep over this.
While some think a recession could be looming for the U.S., fresh housing data says the opposite.
Purchases of new U.S. single-family homes just hit their highest level in more than eight years, representing what Wall Street is calling a strong market.
“Today’s report confirms the considerable strength in the housing market over the past few months,” Rob Martin, an economist at Barclays Plc, said in a note. “We expect housing to continue to firm, on average, over the medium term, with a buoyant household sector supporting both prices and volumes.”…
Akridge, Stars Investments Plan Trophy Office Project in DC
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1101 & 1111 16th St., NW., Washington, D.C.
Washington—Not quite a year after announcing purchase agreements, Akridge and Stars Investments have moved forward with the acquisition of the American Association of University Women and the American Beverage Association’s respective former homes at 1101 and 1111 16th St. NW., in Washington, D.C. Akridge and Stars, a Santiago, Chile-based asset management company overseeing the investments of Chilean entrepreneur Felipe Ibañez Scott, will transform the two Class B buildings into a single 100,000-square-foot trophy office tower.
Hong Kong Property Stocks Overheat as Outlook Improves: Chart
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As far as stock investors are concerned, talk of a plunge in Hong Kong property prices is overdone. An index of real estate companies listed in the city has surged 35 percent from a three-year low in January as traders scale back bets for higher U.S. borrowing costs and home prices rebound from a 13 percent slump. Such exuberance has lifted the relative strength index of property stocks to 80.2, far above the 70 level that signals to some traders shares are overbought…
Hong Kong Property Stocks Overheat as Outlook Improves: Chart
End of an Era as China’s Love Affair With U.S. Real Estate Fades
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Sales to Chinese buyers fell for the first time since 2011
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Capital controls, currency depreciation seen among drags
For David Wong, the business of selling homes isn’t as good this year as it was in 2015, and he’s blaming that on a decline in customers from China.
“The residential-property market here, especially for those priced between $2.5 million to $3 million, has been affected by China’s measures to control capital flight,” said the New York City-based Keller Williams Realty Landmark broker. “You need to cut the price, or it may take a real long time.”…
Opus Completes Xcel Energy HQ Annex in Minneapolis
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Xcel Energy’s new office at 401 Nicollet, Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minn.—The Opus Group has completed a nine-story, 222,000-square-foot office building on the north end of downtown Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall for Xcel Energy, the developer announced last week. The new building at 401 Nicollet connects by skyway with Xcel’s building across the street at 414 Nicollet, creating a two-building campus for the company, which will consolidate operations and employees that were previously spread throughout Minneapolis.
New-Home Sales in U.S. Jump to Highest Level Since February 2008
Posted by: | CommentsPurchases of new U.S. single-family homes rose in June to the highest level in more than eight years, indicating a firm and resilient housing market.
Sales increased 3.5 percent to a 592,000 annualized pace, the fastest since February 2008, Commerce Department data showed Tuesday in Washington. Figures for May were revised higher. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 560,000 rate.
While the government’s new-home purchase data are subject to big swings from month to month, the broader picture for residential real estate shows steady gains fueled by stable employment and low borrowing costs. Faster wage growth and construction of properties priced for entry-level buyers have the potential of further stoking the market…
How Does This Hedge-Fund Manager Make So Much Money?
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Fund reports annual returns as high as 91% since 2013
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Meyer guarantees clients will never lose money with his system
Ten miles south of downtown Atlanta, in an anonymous business center overlooking the airport, sits the headquarters of what, on paper, is a hedge-fund powerhouse.
The numbers coming out of the part-time office at One Hartsfield Centre are remarkable: annual returns of 13 percent, 24 percent, even 91 percent since 2013.
Finra Sides With Brokers in Battle Against Credit Suisse
Posted by: | CommentsDozens of former Credit Suisse advisers who have been fighting for their deferred compensation after leaving the bank last year scored a partial victory on Friday when the brokerage industry’s main regulator said member firms cannot make workers waive their rights to settle disputes in the regulator’s own arbitration forum.
The advisers had been forced by Credit Suisse to use two other arbitration services they didn’t want. Now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says members have the right to request arbitration at Finra “at any time and do not forfeit that right” by signing an agreement saying they must choose otherwise…
SyncHR Makes the Move to Downtown Denver
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1099 18th St., Denver
Denver—Human resources technology firm SyncHR has moved its corporate headquarters to downtown Denver. Though previously based in Oakland, Calif., the company also had an office in the Mile-High City with roughly 50 employees. SyncHR moved to 1099 18th St., Suite 2850 last month, according to The Denver Post. The 31-story building known as the Granite Tower is conveniently situated within the two-city block Denver Place high-rise complex in downtown Denver.
Singapore Banks Facing Earnings Stumble as Bad Loans, Sibor Bite
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Largest lenders may boost provisions for nonperforming loans
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Drop in interbank borrowing costs may drag on interest margins
Earnings reports due soon from Singapore’s largest banks may show their second-quarter profits were crimped by higher buffers for soured loans and a faltering rally in domestic interest rates.
Here are five charts illustrating the themes that may emerge out of the reports from DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Banking Ltd.:
Singapore Banks Facing Earnings Stumble as Bad Loans, Sibor Bite
One Thing Both Parties Want: Break Up the Banks Again
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Former President Bill Clinton in 1999 signed the law that undid much of the Glass-Steagall Act, freeing banks to form all-in-one financial services shops. CreditJustin Lane
Could the Glass-Steagall Act — the Depression-era legislation that forced the separation of investment banking from commercial banking, among other things — be coming back?
Hines JV to Recapitalize Chicago’s Citadel Center
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Citadel Center Chicago (on the right)
Chicago—In a move involving a $50 million equity investment, a joint venture between Hines and New York alternative investment adviser Angelo, Gordon & Co. has recapitalized 131 S. Dearborn, aka Citadel Center, in downtown Chicago, Hines announced late last week. The deal is reportedly the largest restructuring to date of a performing CMBS loan.
Has Wall Street Been Tamed?
Posted by: | CommentsFines, job cuts and anger have taken a toll. Traders and brokers are struggling to adapt to stark new realities.
Chris Hentemann has two pieces of art on the walls of his corner office in midtown Manhattan. One is an oversize photograph of the cockpit of his twin-engine Beechcraft Baron. The other is an Andy Warhol print of Muhammad Ali with his fists cocked.
For Hentemann, a rail-thin money manager who has spent 25 years in finance, the two pictures capture the duality of Wall Street. It’s an industry where you need to manage risk with precision and discipline, but it’s also one driven by audacity, ego and the killer instinct. Or at least it used to be…
La Quinta Inn & Suites Pearsall Expands HMC’s Management Portfolio
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La Quinta Inn & Suites Pearsall
San Antonio—Dallas-headquartered Hospitality Management Corp. (HMC) recently announced the addition of La Quinta Inn & Suites Pearsall to its portfolio of Texas-managed hotels.
The property is located on Interstate 35, between San Antonio and Laredo, at 170 Medical Drive in Pearsall. The area is frequented by hunters attracted to its dense population of whitetail deer and dove. In near proximity are the Old Frio County Jail, Firemans Park, the Wilson Whitetail and Wing Shooting Ranch. Nearby restaurants include Cow Pole Bar-B-Que, Taqueria Jalisco and Brush County Steakhouse. The hotel‘s amenities include an indoor swimming pool, hot tub, fitness center, Wi-Fi and a complimentary Bright Side Breakfast®…
QIA Makes Good on US Investment Promise—Again
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12100 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
Los Angeles—In January 2015, visiting officials of the State of Qatar told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that the country would invest $35 billion in the U.S. over the next five years, and it continues to do just that, with its latest investment being Qatari Investment Authority’s acquisition of the office tower at 12100 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles. QIA, the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, and joint venture partner Douglas Emmett Inc. recently acquired the 365,000-square-foot property, located in the prestigious Brentwood submarket, from Hines for $225 million.