Li Ka-shing’s CK Asset makes US$492 million profit from timely sale of Chengdu development as it pulls back from China

CK Asset sells Chengdu mixed development project for US$1 billion to Yuzhou Group and Chengdu Ruizhou

Sale comes amid rising US-China tension, with Beijing ordering the closure of the US consulate in Chengdu on Friday

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Chengdu Le Parc is a mixed residential and commercial project in the capital of Sichuan province. Photo: Handout

Published: 7:00pm, 24 Jul 2020Updated: 12:50pm, 25 Jul 2020

Li Ka-shing’s CK Asset Holdings has sold a mixed residential and commercial project in Chengdu for US$1.02 billion, the latest mainland China asset disposal of the group.

The company said in an exchange filing late on Thursday that Chengdu Le Parc in the capital of southwestern Sichuan province was sold to Hong Kong-listed Yuzhou Group and Chengdu Ruizhou, giving it an estimated gain of HK$3.81 billion (US$492 million). The Chengdu project has 23,253 residential and commercial units, of which 16,503 units or 70.1 per cent have been sold.

“Li Ka-shing, the senior consultant of CK Asset, and chairman Victor Li Tzar-kuoi have full confidence in Hong Kong and the mainland,” the company said in a separate statement. “With the disposal, CK Asset still has more than 50 real estate projects in more than 20 cities.”

The sale of the Chengdu project is the company’s latest asset disposal in mainland China and comes at a time when tensions between the US and China have been escalating. In October, CK Asset sold a 1.53 million square feet development in the Xigang district of Dalian for 4 billion yuan (US$571 million). The company acquired the right to develop the land for 1.9 billion yuan in 2011.

The US consulate in Chengdu, southwestern China, which has been ordered to close by Beijing. Photo: SCMP

In the past, the decision of the group to sell assets in China was criticised by mainland media as an indication of Li’s view of the country’s economy just when Beijing was facing a slowing growth. The latest sale comes in the wake of a Washington initiative to take punitive actions toward Chinese officials deemed to have eroded Hong Kong’s freedoms.