PAYSON Cha Mou-sing, the managing director of property developer HKR International, has outlined a strategy to set up Discovery Bay-style developments throughout Asia.
Sitting on a cash pile of $4 billion and with ambitions in Hong Kong held back by land restrictions, HKR plans to spread its wings regionally to develop self-sustaining townships similar to the successful development on Lantau.
The group is in preliminary negotiations with Thai, Singaporean and Malaysian officials and has an approved master plan for a development at Taicang, Shanghai.
However, Mr Cha has not diverted HKR's attention from Hong Kong. As property prices continued to fall, HKR would become more active in the territory's land auctions, and look for suitable properties for hotel development, he said.
Discovery Bay, in which HKR sold a 50 per cent stake to CITIC Pacific for $3.4 billion earlier this year, will continue to expand. Some 2.3 million square feet is being made available for development.
The first construction phase of the new town at Tsuen Wan, which is being jointly developed with New World, is expected to be completed by early 1996.
But Mr Cha is looking at regional property developments to sustain the group's future earnings.
