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1. HKR plans Disco Bay expansion

2. Activists have their sights on a third land auction site

3. Hopewell unit eyes $3b to fund projects

1. HKR plans Disco Bay expansion
Raymond Wang, The Standard 11 August 2005

International and CITIC Pacific plan to spend HK$1 billion to HK$2 billion to add 1.4 million square feet of residential floor area in Discovery Bay on Lantau Island.

The companies are equal partners in more than two million sq ft of developable area in the Yi Pak area of the housing estate.

HKR executive director Jackie Tang said land premium negotiations with the government are under way. The land premium would be on top of the estimated construction cost of up to HK$2 billion.

Seventy percent of the developable area is earmarked for residential use, with the rest reserved for a commercial and hotel complex.

The housing project will be completed in phases from 2007 to 2011.

On its own, HKR is already developing Discovery Bay Phase 13, with gross floor area of 532,323 sq ft. It is slated for completion next year.

The company said only five or six residential units in Discovery Bay Phase 12 remained unsold.

To bolster its presence in Southeast Asia, HKR has bought two plots of land in Thailand for about HK$80 million. Development plans have yet to be set.

In China, the central government's measures to cool off the real estate market have delayed site clearance - demolition and resettlement - work on HKR's redevelopment project in Shanghai's Jingan district.

Site clearance costs could double from 1.3 billion yuan (HK$1.25 billion), the company warned.

Managing director Victor Cha said the company would continue to negotiate with the Jingan district government in effort to make it possible for site clearance to start before the end of this year and to be completed in phases by 2007. He said HKR was optimistic about the project because the rising costs of resettling dislodged residents could be offset by the rising flat prices.

2. Activists have their sights on a third land auction site
CHLOE LAI, SCMP 11 August 2005

The former police quarters on Hollywood Road. SCMP photo

Conservationists are prepared to use the official planning mechanism to stop the former police headquarters on Hollywood Road becoming another high-rise block of flats. Their stand is another blow to the application list system for releasing land for development.

The site is not the only controversial one on the list. Plans to sell the waterfront site at Oil Street, North Point, suffered a fresh blow when a harbour advisory group asked the authorities to change planning guidelines for the site.

The newly formed Mid-Levels Concern Group will submit a rezoning request to the Town Planning Board next week to turn the Hollywood Road site designated for luxury residential development into an area for government and community use.

A member of the group, Roger Ho Yao-sheng, said: "We have talked to many people in the neighbourhood and the feedback was the area lacks community space, such as a library and swimming pool. We don't think another high-rise will benefit the community."

It is the third campaign in a month to target sites that the government wants to sell for development. The Hong Kong Institute of Architects is campaigning to preserve what could be the city's last Bauhaus-style building - the Central Market - from complete demolition. The site is also on the application list and will be ready for auction in February.

Th group Designing the Hong Kong Harbour District, on the other hand, is trying to protect the Oil Street site on the North Point waterfront from excessive redevelopment.

A rezoning request was submitted to the board last week to turn part of the site into open space to ensure public access to the waterfront. It would also limit development by reducing the site's plot ratio and imposing a height limit.

The Housing, Planning and Lands Bureau refused to change the plan for the site, saying it had been committed for auction and "the government needs to protect potential investors' interest".

But the harbour district group scored a victory yesterday. The Harbourfront Enhancement Committee passed a resolution in which it urged the Town Planning Board to review the planning brief of the North Point site.

The advisory body will write to the Town Planning Board expressing its concern that the government is not following its own harbour planning principles.

Committee member Nicholas Brooke called it the first test of the government's commitment to protecting the waterfront.

Most committee members anticipate the move will deter developers from submitting bids high enough to trigger an auction for the site. A bid has been submitted, but it was not close enough to the government's valuation to bring a sale.

3. Hopewell unit eyes $3b to fund projects
DENISE TSANG and FIONA LAU, SCMP 11 August 2005

Hopewell Highway Infrastructure, the toll-road flagship of property developer Hopewell Holdings, is raising $3 billion to help fund road projects.

In its first syndication loan since going public in 2003, the company has commissioned six banks - CCB International Finance, ICBC Asia, Bank of China Hong Kong, Citigroup, BNP Paribas and Bank of East Asia - to arrange the loan, according to banking sources familiar with the deal.

The all-in pricing of the loan, which was preliminarily fixed at 45 to 50 basis points above the Hong Kong interbank offered rate (Hibor), would be finalised next week, they said.

"Hopewell has got many capital-intensive projects on its plate and it's reasonable for them to raise a large amount of money," one source said. "Many banks showed interest in the deal."

Hopewell officials declined to comment yesterday, citing terms of the deal being finalised.

Analysts pointed out that Hopewell's indicative pricing was much higher than a $4 billion five-year revolving loan taken out by Cheung Kong (Holdings) and arranged in May, for which the company was charged an all-in price of 30 basis points above Hibor.

The loan comes hot on the heels of several rounds of interest-rate rises in Hong Kong, the latest of which took place yesterday when major banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of East Asia raised their prime lending rates by 0.25 percentage point following the US Federal Reserve's move.

At the beginning of this year, Hopewell had a war chest of $2 billion, according to chairman Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung.

The company, which runs the 122.8 km Guangzhou-Shenzhen superhighway, plans road-widening works costing seven billion yuan on the toll road.

In addition, Hopewell is committed to the 4.9 billion yuan, 46km second phase of the Western Delta toll-road project running between Shunde and Zhongshan.