CDL investing $41m in E-House's Hong Kong IPO

Property giant City Developments Limited (CDL) will invest HK$237.81 million (S$41 million) in a real-estate service provider's initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong.

The move will make CDL a cornerstone investor in E-House alongside e-commerce firm Alibaba, China state-owned Overseas Chinese Town Holdings and an associate company of Hong Kong-based Henderson Land Development.

E-House's main operations comprise real-estate agency services, data consultancy and property brokerage.

CDL said in a statement yesterday that E-House is "widely regarded as China's pre-eminent real estate transaction service provider".

The firm has a sales force of 17,000 agents in 186 cities across 30 Chinese provinces.

Its key business of marketing residential projects generated revenue of 3.9 billion yuan (S$797 million) last year, CDL added.

The IPO price for E-House's stock will be determined in the coming days and is expected to be between HK$14.38 and HK$17.68.

CDL is expected to subscribe for 13.45 million to 16.54 million shares.

Its group chief executive, Mr Sherman Kwek, said he sees "strong potential in E-House's growth".

"Aside from investing in residential, commercial and mixed-use projects in Shanghai, Suzhou and Chongqing, the next logical step was to invest in the nation's (China's) top sales agency with an extensive network of agents and a deep, robust database for purposes of research and analytics," he added.

CDL shares closed six cents higher at $9.68 yesterday.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 11, 2018, with the headline CDL investing $41m in E-House's Hong Kong IPO. Subscribe