The receiver of a nearly 450,000 sq ft residential site in Hong Kong Island’s Eastern district, once owned by distressed Chinese developer Agile Group Holdings, put the property up for sale by tender on Monday.
Agile paid a total of about HK$3.3 billion (US$423 million) for the two sites that make up the tender, at 992-998 King’s Road and 2-16 Mount Parker Road in Quarry Bay, in 2017 and 2022, according to Savills, the sole agent for the sale.
The site area is around 50,000 sq ft and supports a maximum gross floor area of around 448,000 sq ft. The deadline for expression of interest is noon on October 2.
“Upon completion, the project is expected to provide over 500 residential units and more than 190 car parking spaces,” said Tommy Chan, senior director of investment of Savills. With scarce new residential supply in the urban areas of Hong Kong Island, coupled with the site’s proximity to the Quarry Bay MTR station and the Taikoo Place office complex, the development is expected to appeal to both owner-occupiers and investors, he added.
Agile held 100 per cent interest in the project as of December 31, according to its 2023 annual report.
“The group has two high-quality property projects,” the report said, listing the King’s Road and Mount Parker Road sites, plus a project on Eastbourne Road in Kowloon Tong.
Last year, Agile paid HK$966 million for Dragon Court, a 44-unit building at 6 Eastbourne Road, in a compulsory en-bloc sale for the redevelopment of the building. The company has an 82 per cent interest in the project, according to its annual report.
The Quarry Bay tender comes a week after the chairman of Agile, Chen Zhuolin, sold a flat in a neighbouring project to Dragon Court, Hamburg Villa at 8-10 Eastbourne Road, for less than half the price paid six years ago.
The 1,239 sq ft, three-bedroom flat fetched HK$14.3 million, compared with HK$31 million in 2018 when the city’s property market was still soaring, according to an agent with Centaline, which closed the deal.
The price per square foot of HK$11,525 was about 15 per cent lower than the prevailing market rate.
The property was acquired in 2018 by Joint Smart Development, whose director is Chen, according to the Companies Registry.
Agile has acquired one-third of the 33 units in Hamburg Villa, and the developer had expressed a desire to acquire the entire building. In 2018, Agile bought five flats in Hamburg Villa for HK$73 million. As of last December, the developer owned a 23 per cent interest in the project.
Now, with the developer selling a flat in Hamburg Villa at a steep loss, market observers speculate that Agile may suspend the acquisition of the remaining units in the building. In May, the cash-strapped Guangzhou-based developer failed to pay interest on a US$483 million bond maturing in 2025.
Agile said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange that it “will not be able to fulfil all payment obligations under its offshore debts” in light of the liquidity pressure.
Luk Sin-fong, Agile’s former vice-chairwoman and Chen’s wife, had taken out a loan for an undisclosed amount, using as collateral 39 South Bay Road, a multi-storey luxury residential building in Repulse Bay, a source said in February.
Luk had been shopping for a HK$500 million facility, the source said.
Agile also took out a two-year, HK$894 million loan in June 2022 at an annual interest rate of 20 per cent as part of a plan to trim a debt load that amounted to 59.49 billion yuan (US$8.3 billion) at the time.
It was seeking to refinance its HK$894 million facility, for which the residential sites on Mount Parker Road and King’s Road serve as collateral, the sources said.
Agile’s total borrowings, including bank loans, senior notes and mainland corporate bonds, had fallen to 53.55 billion yuan at the end of December 2023. The company reported a loss of 13.8 billion yuan in 2023.
