Staff reporterJanuary 29, 2018
The Sydney developer Yuhu Group has been confirmed as the buyer of the two Australian property jewels being developed by the Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda.
The company have paid a reported $1.13 billion for the Sydney and Gold Coast residential and hotel mixed-used projects.
Yuhu struck its deal in Hong Kong on January 18.
"Yuhu has faith that these two projects will inject new employment and boost the local economy," Yuhu founder and chairman Huang Xiangmo told Fairfax Media, where two reporters claimed to have broken the news exclusively.
Yuhu was the reported buyer in The Australian two weeks ago.
Yuhu is a local developer which is committed to investing in real estate and other developments in Australia, the group confirmed overnight.
The purchase price for the two highly desirable real estate assets is made up of a cash component of $315 million alo with the presumed debt of $815 million.
Forty-five per cent of the Gold Coast project Jewel was owned by Chinese-backed group Ridong. It has also sold its interests in the sale to Yuhu.
An independent valuation of the two projects put them at a total value of $1.12 billion, Dalian Wanda said in a release to the Hong Kong Exchange on Monday night.
Dalian Wanda came under pressure by the Chinese government to crimp its overseas investments.
Forty per cent of the Jewel apartments have sold, with the joint venture struggling to achieve similar sales rates achieved by many developers during the housing boom in the past five years, according to the Australian Financial Review
Yuhu is in no rush to complete the sales of apartments.
The company has extensive developments and investments in Sydney.
There is also the North Sydney residential tower, The Miller, which it is developing, and the Bakehouse Quarter in Sydney's inner west which it bought for $380 million last year.
Mr Huang says the residential market in Sydney continues to show strong fundamentals.
It also advised its plans to retain the penthouse atop the Circular Quay residential tower, which Dalian Wanda was said to have received an expression-of-interest offer of $100 million.
As a local company Yuhu did not require Foreign Investment Review Board approval.
Yuhu is controlled by Mr Huang - an Australian permanent resident - and his family members, who are Australian citizens.
