Cheng Family Sells HK Shopping Mall For $513-M

New World Development sold a shopping mall in the Tsuen Wan district of Hong Kong for HK$4.02 billion ($513 million) as part of its ongoing efforts to sell non-core assets and allay investors’ concerns about its debt load, Robert Olsen reported for Forbes Asia.

New World is selling the Discovery Park shopping mall in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong. I Photo: LWK+PARTNERS

New World said in a recent statement that it’s selling the property, which covers a total area of 630,000 square feet and has 1,000 parking spaces, to Chinachem Group, a privately held real estate developer controlled by the estate of Nina Wang.

High interest rates and falling property prices are ramping up the pressure on Hong Kong’s property players, and New World is among the city’s most indebted developers.

The company’s net gearing ratio—measured by net debt divided by total equity—was at 49.9% in December 2023, and it’s aiming to get it down to mid to high 30% by 2027. New World said a day earlier that it had raised its target for disposing of non-core assets in the current financial year to HK$8 billion.

Previously, it had been aiming for HK$6 billion. The revised target was revealed as the company released its first-half results that showed its underlying profit had risen 12% to HK$4.87 billion, but the company’s revenue had dropped 25% to HK$17 billion.

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