Swire Pacific says its wholly-owned subsidiary is in talks to sell a 'significant' property asset that could lead to a disclosable transaction under listing rules.
The announcement was released after Sing Tao Daily reported that Singapore's Mapletree Investments is in talks to buy Swire's Festival Walk centre in Kowloon Tong, involving HK$22 billion.
Swire Pacific said yesterday that Swire Properties 'is in discussions which could lead to the disposal of a significant investment property asset'. If the talks lead to an agreement, it will be a disclosable transaction, it said.
A spokeswoman for Swire Properties declined to identify the property and also declined to comment on the news report.
Festival Walk, which opened in 1998, comprises 980,089 square feet of shopping space and 228,665 square feet of offices.
An independent valuation of the retail arcade as of March 3, 2010 came in at HK$14.45 billion, while the office portion was valued at HK$1.45 billion, according to information Swire Properties provided to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing last April.