Shun Tak Holdings Ltd. has clarified which land plots it will attempt to get from the government relating to its ongoing negotiations regarding the Nam Van land swaps for plots whose total developable gross floor area amounts to 2.7 million square feet, according to the group’s filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The four plots comprise two whose lease expired on July 30 of this year, as well as two plots to be located on Zone D of the new land reclamation zones.
For the two plots whose lease has already expired, Shun Tak notes that the lots – D2 and D5 – ‘remain registered under the ownership of D2 Land Company and D5 Land company,’ which have ‘been requesting the Macau Government for an extension of the concession rights’ for the plots.
Lot D2 is 8,253 square metres in size, while Lot D2 is 3,307 square metres in size. Both are currently ‘still held by the Macau Government for its own use,’ notes the filing. The two expired plots are evaluated as being worth HK$640 million (US$79.7 million) and HK$1.43 billion, respectively.
Zone D
The two plots located on the reclaimed land zone were chosen given that they are ‘the only two land sites in Macau which, based on existing circumstances in terms of location, site area, permitted land uses and developable gross floor area […] are comparable’ with the land taken back by the government.
These sites occupy 6,480 square metres (Lot N25) and 6,480 square metres (Lot 12 (A2/G), respectively, with land uses for residential, commercial, hotel and car park areas – in total amounting to usable gross floor area of 121,550 square metres, about 1.3 million square feet, or half the area in question under the swap.
According to a property valuation contracted by Shun Tak, the two plots are worth HK$1.76 billion and HK$2.09 billion, respectively. The four plots represent an aggregate market value of HK5.92 billion, ‘which is almost four times the maximum amount of the Pro-rata Consideration’ under the original deal, which amounted to HK$1.5 billion, based upon a price per developable gross floor area of HK$556 per square feet, according to the filing.
‘It is anticipated that the Macau Government may grant one or more Replacement Sites at different stages in respect [of the land swap agreements],’ notes the filing, prompting the group to extend its Sale and Purchase Agreement with the other landholding companies with which Shun Tak holds agreements relating to the purchase of the land, until October 2026.
Shun Tak has also noted that with regard to any potential land swapped, it will only accept replacement sites ‘of which the prevailing market value per square feet, determined based on independent property valuation, is HK$556 or more’.
