US$342 million Nanhai Business City to scale up Mapletree’s Pearl River Delta business

FOSHAN (China): Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd says its US$342 million (RM1.15 billion) Nanhai Business City (picture) development in Guangdong Province, China, is an opportunity for the company to scale up its business in the Pearl River Delta in addition to complementing Foshan’s growth.

This would be Mapletree’s largest project in China to date, and will be done in collaboration with Pan Shun Ming, the chairman of Southern Packaging Ltd and funded by the company’s sponsored private real estate fund, Mapletree India China Fund (MIC Fund).

“We see a lot of potential in Foshan’s strategic location and are keen to participate in the city’s rapid urbanisation by bringing our expertise in creating vibrant integrated work-live-play environments here,” said Mapletree chief executive officer Hiew Yoon Khong at the groundbreaking ceremony for the first phase of the project.

“We are confident that the demand for good-quality residential, retail, business and other commercial real estate sectors will continue to see significant growth, given the growing affluence of the population in Foshan,” he said.

The first phase of the project will involve the development of 20 high-rise apartment blocks and a 4-storey retail mall, VivoCity@Nanhai, on 10ha of land. The mall will incorporate attributes from Mapletree’s Singapore retail mall VivoCity.

The 2,000 residential apartments will be supported by recreational facilities, with the first batch of 270 units to be ready for sale in the third quarter of 2010.

These developments are part of a larger proposed 35ha development comprising retail, residential, office and hotel components to be developed in phases according to market demand. It will be developed in four phases over the next five to eight years.

“China is an important investment market for Mapletree,” said Hiew. “We are currently evaluating several other suitable investments in China and India for our US$1.16 billion Mapletree India China Fund, which was specifically set up to fund our expansion in China and India.“

Nanhai Business City is located in Foshan, which is a neighbouring city to Guangzhou. Foshan reportedly has a GDP per capita of RMB72,975 (RM35,980) and a population of six million in 2008.