(Pictured: The Golf Club at Newcastle)
CWT International Limited, a unit of HNA Group, announced that it had sold the eight clubs for a total consideration of $86.5 million to Magic Radiance Ltd., a privately held company. The net assets of the eight properties were valued at $113 million at mid-year. HNA bought the eight clubs and two others from Oki Golf in 2016 for $137 million as part of a $10 billion buying spree, but the company defaulted on a (Hong Kong) $1.4 billion loan earlier this year, causing lenders to seize control of assets that included the clubs.
China’s HNA Group is continuing to sell off its overseas portfolio, reported Mingtiandi.com, a website specializing in “Asia real estate intelligence,” as a subsidiary of the company announced that it was selling eight golf clubs in the Seattle, Wash. area that it had purchased in 2016 amid a record-breaking cross-border buying binge.
CWT International Limited (CWTI), a unit of HNA Group, announced in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 1 that it has agreed to sell the eight properties for a total consideration of $86.5 million, in an effort to pay down outstanding debt and free up working capital, Mingtiandi.com reported.
The net assets of the eight properties—which include the Golf Club at Newcastle, Harbour Pointe Golf Club, Washington National Golf Club, the Golf Club at Redmond Ridge, the Plateau Club, Trophy Lake Golf & Casting, the Golf Club at Hawks Prairie, and Indian Summer Golf & Country Club—was said in the statement to be approximately $113 million as of June 30, or nearly 24 percent less than the sale price, Mingtiandi.com reported.
The eight clubs constitute the bulk of a portfolio of 10 properties that HNA had purchased from Seattle-based Oki Golf in October 2016 for a total of $137 million (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/hna-holdings-buys-10-washington-golf-courses-137-5m/). That acquisition was part of a month when HNA made a total of $10 billion in acquisitions, Mingtiandi.com reported, as the company was using top-level lending support in mainland China to purchase logistics, real estate and tech assets around the world.
The new owners of the eight Seattle-area clubs, according to the filing by CWTI, which HNA formed through its takeover of Singapore logistics firm CWT Pte Ltd., is Magic Radiance Ltd, a privately held company said to be controlled by an Elaine Bai, Mingtiandi.com reported.
The sale came more than six months after HNA defaulted on a HK$1.4 billion loan, prompting lenders to have seized control of its assets in Singapore, China and the U.S., including the Seattle-area clubs, Mingtiandi.com reported.
In its statement about the sale of the Seattle-area clubs, CWTI said that it considers the divestment an appropriate opportunity to dispose of its interests in the U.S. properties, after taking into consideration negative market circumstances including increasing China-U.S. trade tensions, macroeconomic downward pressures and the slow development of the U.S. golf industry, Mingtiandi.com reported.
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