Tai Cheung seeks cash to buy land

Tai Cheung (Holdings) will release three major property developments in Tuen Mun for sale in the second half to generate fresh capital of more than $2 billion for land acquisitions.

Chairman David Chan Pun said two of them were residential projects, Parkview Court and Nerine Cove, and the third a commercial project, Tuen Mun Central Square.

Tai Cheung has a 20 per cent stake in Nerine Cove. Its partners in the project include China Overseas Land & Investment, Ryoden Development and Kiu Kwong Investment.

Mr Chan said he expected to raise $500 million to $600 million from the sale of the 224-unit Parkview Court, $800 million from the 1,264-unit Nerine Cove and up to $800 million from Tuen Mun Central Square.

Profit margins on the two residential projects, the sites of which were bought in Government auctions in 1997, would be squeezed by the property market's weakness, he said.

The projects would be released at prices of about $3,000 to $4,000 per square foot, subject to market sentiment.

Mr Chan refused to disclose whether his company would suffer a loss in their sale.

But the company said earlier Parkview Court's overall development cost, excluding interest expenses, would be about $3,100 per square foot, while the average land cost for the Nerine Cove site was $3,200 per square foot.

Anticipating a recovery, Mr Chan said the company was interested in acquiring land for both residential and office developments.

Its existing land bank was enough for development in the next few years, he said.

Tai Cheung said it would launch the Tuen Mun Central Square public sale on July 1.

Office units in the project will be offered at $1,807 per square foot, with retail units at $3,925 per square foot.

The office units will be released on the concept of a fully computerised business environment.

Mr Chan said talks with various parties to take up about 50 per cent of the space were under way.

The building's computerised concept had attracted an encouraging initial response.

Tuen Mun Central Square has a total of 364 units - comprising 333 office units, 30 retail units and one floor for a restaurant.

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