Hong Kong’s Gale Well reels from market downturn, loses US$6.5 million on 2 asset sales
The real estate investment firm has sold a number of properties in the last few months, while some of its assets are still on the market
Hong Kong property investment firm Gale Well Group, which has been divesting assets, sold three shops this month, incurring a loss of more than HK$51 million (US$6.5 million) on two of them, as the city’s retail real estate market remains mired in a downturn.
Gale Well sold a 2,780 sq ft street-level shop at King Kwong Street in Happy Valley for HK$28.8 million, nearly 40 per cent lower than the HK$46 million it paid in 2008, according to Land Registry data. The transaction was completed on May 23 through a holding company, Fine Keen Investment. Gale Well chairman Rita Tong Liu is a director at Fine Keen, according to the Companies Registry.
The company also sold a 1,537 sq ft shop on the ground floor of Haleson Building in Central for HK$38.8 million, according to property agents. The price represented a 47 per cent loss on the HK$72.8 million paid in 2011 by Parkmax Investment, according to the Land Registry. Liu is a Parkmax director.
Gale Well’s third divestment was a 21,702 sq ft three-storey shop on Morrison Hill Road in Causeway Bay for HK$110 million, according to Savills, which handled the sale. The transaction resulted in a profit of 49 per cent for Keenplan International, which bought the property for HK$73.8 million in 2005, according to the Land Registry. Liu is a director of Keenplan.
Last week, Gale Well appointed Savills as the agent for three shops in North Point, Causeway Bay and Wan Chai, which have a combined indicative price of HK$190 million.
Gale Well did not immediately respond to a request for comment.