Nine sells Willoughby headquarters for $147 million to Asian developer
Nine Entertainment has settled the sale of its 50-year-old Sydney headquarters, with the $147 million deal with a Hong Kong-based group and its partners completed.
Hong Kong developer Euro Properties and its partners paid nearly $125 million in a cash transaction for the Willoughby site near North Sydney. Nine had received $22.125 million in June.
The deal was announced two years ago. The HK developer wants to build nearly 400 apartments on the 2.9 hectare site.
The deal came through in spite of settlement concerns following Beijing’s crackdown on offshore investments by Chinese businesses and also on outflows.
Recently, Chinese regulators ordered the country's big banks to put the brakes on loans to Dalian Wanda Group, putting at risk its projects in the Gold Coast and at Sydney's Circular Quay with a total value of nearly $2 billion.
In an ASX announcement, Nine said that it had "completed the sale of its Willoughby, Sydney site to Euro Properties, a Hong Kong based property investor. NEC received a deposit of $22.125m in the financial year to 30 June 2016 and cash proceeds today of approximately $125m”.
“On an after-tax basis, Nine expects to receive a total of approximately $134 million. Nine has leased back the Willoughby site until the expected completion of new premises in North Sydney in 2020.”
Nine has plans to relocate to North Sydney's tallest tower at the new 39-storey, 1 Denison Street tower being developed by Gary Rothwell's Winten Property Group and due for completion in 2020, added The Australian Financial Review.
The broadcaster will base its production, sales and digital operations in the new tower.
Euro Properties and its Sydney-based partner Lotus, led by director Michael Jiang, have plans for a five-building residential development at the site.
Euro’s other project in Sydney is an apartment tower on Castlereagh Street. It has a presence in the US, Hong Kong and Singapore as well, including a mixed-used tower at 118 East 59th Street in New York, its first in Manhattan.
Its partner Lotus focuses on restaurants and property in Sydney and recently scooped up the leasehold commercial property Chatswood Central in Sydney's lower north shore for about $115 million, with another partner iProsperity.