Hong Kong Eton Properties Ltd. acquired land in Shenyang and will become the largest real estate investor in Liaoning
After staying in Mainland China for more than a decade in a low key, Eton Properties Group acquired a golden plot in Shenyang at the end of last month, successfully entering the 6th target city.
On July 20, 2007, Eton Properties Group acquired 28# plot in "Golden Corridor" of Shenyang through public bidding, auction and listing at a price of 1.3 billion yuan. On April 26 of the same year, "Eton Place· Dalian" officially started construction. Shenyang is the second stop after Eton entered Northeast China.
This plot is situated in the golden business center on the east of Qingnian Street. With a land area of about 94,000m2, a planned total floorage of about 1.2 million m2 and Shenyang Municipal Government Square in the vicinity, it will be built into a complex integrating super star-rated hotel, 5A office building, large shopping mall and upscale residence. The preliminarily planned total investment is about 8 billion yuan. The project is named "Eton Place · Shenyang" for the time being.
The project in Dalian is also a landmark complex in CBD. The group plans to invest 6~7 billion yuan in the project. Patrick Wong, the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Eton Properties Group expressed the aggregate investment of the two projects in Shenyang and Dalian is 15 billion yuan at least. As more investment will be input for landmark buildings, it is predicted that the investment will amount to 20 billion yuan at least.
"We will become the largest real estate investor in Liaoning soon," said Patrick Wong.
Patrick Wong revealed that Eton Properties Group will focus its investment in Northeast China in the near future, concentrate its effort in Shenyang and Dalian at first and "stay on in Northeast China". Yang Xiaoping, former Vice President of Hopson Development Holding Limited currently is the Vice President of Eton and takes charge of the business in Northeast China. In Northeast China, this price "low land", the Group will actively search new opportunities for continuous expansion.
Eton Properties Group is a real estate company under the group of Lucio C. Tan, the richest man in the Philippines. Before entering the market of Mainland China, he was called "luxurious house expert" in Hong Kong. Eton Properties Ltd. is the second largest private real estate company in Hong Kong, behind Nina Wang's Chinachem Group only.
After the entry into the market of Mainland China, Eton still sticks to a high-end route and focus on urban landmark buildings. "Definitely, we will invite the best construction companies and advisory companies to undertake our projects," said Patrick Wong.
Patrick Wong said while pointing at the five cities on the name card: "We have inserted a flag in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Dalian. Now here comes Shenyang. The project in Shanghai is small, only 120,000m2, while that in Xiamen is 300,000m2, that in Dalian is 800,000m2 and that in Shenyang is 1,000,000m2. In the future, we hope there is a project of 1,000,000m2 in each city.
In the future, tier-2 cities will be the development direction of Eton. While focusing its attention on Northeast China, the group will also keep an eye to the central region of China. "In Beijing, Shanghai and other tier-1 cities, there are not many opportunities for developing landmark projects in downtown. Moreover, the land price is sky high. In comparison, there are more opportunities in inland cities where larger projects may be undertaken," said Patrick Wong.
(Excerpt from China Real Estate Business published on August 6, 2007)