SINGAPORE - CapitaLand Mall Asia, the wholly owned shopping mall business of CapitaLand, has inked its second management contract within a span of five months, the company announced on Tuesday (Jan 10).
CapitaLand will manage the shopping mall in La Botanica, a township located in Xi'an's Chan-Ba Ecological District that is being developed by CapitaLand-Henderson (Xi'an) Property Development, a joint venture between the Singapore developer and Hong Kong-based Henderson Land.
This deal follows CapitaLand's announcement last August that it is managing the retail component of Fortune Finance Centre in Changsha, China, for Changsha Pilot Investment, and its acquisition of CapitaMall Xinnan in Chengdu last September.
Including the mall in La Botanica, CapitaLand now manages a portfolio of 14 shopping malls in western China with a combined retail gross floor area (GFA) of about 1.13 million sq m (12.2 million square feet). The region is also home to two of CapitaLand's flagship Raffles City integrated developments - Raffles City Chengdu, which opened in 2012, and Raffles City Chongqing, Singapore's single largest investment in China at 24 billion yuan (S$5 billion) that will be opening in phases from 2018.
Said Mr Jason Leow, CEO of CapitaLand Mall Asia: "We are fast-tracking the growth of our shopping mall network in western China to capitalise on the region's favourable economic prospects, which have been boosted by the Chinese government's Western China Development Programme, One Belt, One Road economic initiative as well as the Sino-Singapore Chongqing Connectivity Initiative.
"As more of these malls open and turn fully operational, it will position CapitaLand well to deliver sustainable returns in the near future with positive knock-on effect on our ROE. This year, CapitaLand is preparing to open eight more malls, of which six will be in China. As we continue to enhance our retail scale and network through acquisitions and management contracts; we will also look at reconstituting our portfolio to achieve an optimal asset mix to provide us with stability and a strong recurring income stream."
Under the contract, CapitaLand will oversee asset planning, pre-opening and retail management for a five-storey shopping mall - four levels above ground and one basement level - with GFA, excluding car park, of about 50,000 sq m.
Expected to start operating in 2019, the new mall will double CapitaLand's retail presence in Xi'an, where it currently owns and manages CapitaMall Xindicheng, a 60,000 sq m mall about 10 km south of La Botanica.
