China: HNA pays $1.1b for former Hong Kong Airport site

A unit of HNA Group outbid Hong Kong developers including Cheung Kong Property Holdings with an HK$8.84b (US$1.1b) offer for government land in the former Kai Tak airport area, the highest price tag in three-and-a-half years. It was the most hotly contested land tender this year, as a rebound in home prices is underway, attracting 20 bidders including Hong Kong’s Henderson Land Development Company and Wheelock Properties, and mainland buyers such as China Overseas Land & Investment and China Vanke, according to a Lands Department announcement on Wednesday. The Kai Tak purchase works out to about HK$13,490 per square foot. It’s the most that a piece of land has fetched in a government sale since March 2013, when Kerry Properties Ltd. paid HK$11.7b for a parcel in the Ho Man Tin district of Kowloon. The deal is the latest overseas foray for HNA, which has been on a $34b dealmaking spree over the past year. The company, led by aviation tycoon Chen Feng, operates airlines, hotels and tourism businesses and is pursuing an aggressive expansion to capitalize on the surge in Chinese outbound traffic which will reach 200 million annually by 2020.<br/>