Huge real estate M&A deals made

The ceremony to sign the trilateral cooperation agreement among An Gia Investment, Japanese Creed Group and Phat Dat Real Estate Development JSC took place last week.

The three parties committed to join forces to develop River City project at No 442 Dao Cong Tri street in HCM City. The project, covering an area of 11.25 hectares, has the total investment capital of VND12 trillion. Twelve blocks of 8,000 apartments, offices and shops would be built under the project.

Creed Group is a familiar name in Vietnam. The investment fund now manages capital of up to US$5 billion. Prior to that, it once cooperated with An Gia Investment to develop large apartment projects, including Angia Skyline and Angia Riverside.

Keppel Land, also a familiar name in Vietnam, has recently signed a conditional investment agreement to obtain 40% of stakes in Empire City, the business which plans to spend US$1.2 billion to build a complex of high-end apartments, offices, retail area and 86-story tower in Thu Thiem new urban area in district 2.

The transaction worth US$93.9 million has turned Keppel Land into the biggest partners in the Empire City joint venture. The other two partners in the joint ventures - Vietnamese Tien Phuoc and Tran Thai Companies - contribute 30% of capital, while Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital Partners contributes 30%.

Sapphire JSC, belonging to Australian Sakkara Group, said it is looking for office, apartment and housing projects with medium or large scale.

Vietnamese owned businesses have also been busy these days with takeover deals. 

Dat Xanh Real Estate has spent VND61 billion to raise its ownership ratio in Agriculture Printing and Packaging JSC to 99.99% and obtain the right to develop the project of a complex of apartments, offices and shopping malls called Opal Tower to be located on Pham Van Dong Road.

Thu Duc House plans to cooperate with Fideco to develop a project at No 28 Phung Khac Khoan street and the Can Gio high-end residential quarter. It also plans to cooperate with LPTex to develop the high-end office & apartment project Vinatex Building on Vo Van Kiet street.

Consultancy experts noted that the number of M&A deals could be higher than announced, if counting the projects which have not been made public for many reasons.

Le Hoang Chau, chair of the HCM City Real Estate Association, believes that more and more joint venture and M&A deals would be made in 2016 as real estate developers and investors have a more optimistic outlook about the domestic real estate market.