Is Hong Kong’s ‘Superman’ the mystery buyer of cash-strapped Goldin’s Kai Tak waterfront residential site?
- Goldin strikes a deal to park its Kai Tak residential site with the help of mystery lifeline provider at a cost of HK$853 million
- Deal gives Goldin immediate cash to repay debt and renew its loan facility to alleviate a cash crunch and fend off creditors
Goldin Financial Holdings plans to sell its waterfront residential site in Kai Tak to a mystery buyer at a deep discount in exchange for cash and loan, in what is the first major debt restructuring to unfold from the city’s property market slump.
The deal was structured to give Goldin an option to buy back the property at a cost of HK$853 million within 12 months. Goldin paid HK$8.91 billion for the site in a government tender in November 2018, at the height of the market boom.
The deal comes as critical lifeline for Goldin to lighten its debt burden after a series of ill-timed debt-funded acquisitions. It will also help the group preserve some of its prime assets after hostile creditors earlier this month attempted to foreclose the company to recover their loans.
The sale is shrouded in mystery because not much is known of the buyer, sparking speculation that Hong Kong’s most-famous billionaire Li Ka-shing is behind the deal. The previous deal in May to sell the same parcel to closely-held Top Family Group has now been terminated, according to Friday’s exchange filing.