CWG announces land acquisition, buyout of Chinese land owner

REAL estate group CWG International on Monday announced that it has been successful in its bid for the land use rights of a land parcel at Changshu city, Jiangsu province, China for 454 million yuan (S$92.8 million).

The land parcel comprises a site area of about 40,612 sqm with a plot ratio of 2.1. The bidding is part of the group's ongoing effort to participate in auctions for prospective land to build up its land bank.

It said: "This auction and acquisition of the land parcel is in line with the group's strategy to scale in China, and will add to the group's projects targeting the Tier-3 market which is presently experiencing high sales turnover.

"The group remains confident of the robustness of the PRC market, in particular that of the cities with a vibrant economy, and believe that these markets will continue to grow due to immigration and increasing affluence."

It added that any development on the land parcel is not expected to complete before 2019.

Separately, CWG also announced that following its acquisition of a 70-per-cent interest in Chinese land owner Xuancheng Xinkaiyuan Real Estate Development Co in July, it has now acquired the remaining 30 per cent of the equity interest for 38 million yuan. This was fully satisfied in cash, funded from the company's internal resources.

"Following the second acquisition, the target has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. . . The total consideration for the 100-per-cent equity interest in the target paid by Suzhou Chiwayland amounted to 145.7 million yuan," it said.

Its stock ended flat on the stock market at S$0.145.