On December 9, Lai Sun Development of Hong Kong issued an announcement stating that TIL, a wholly-controlled entity under the company, had sold 100% equity interest in Surearn Profits Limited. The underlying assets corresponding to this equity are partial office floors of China Construction Bank Tower located in Central, Hong Kong, covering an area of approximately 11,202 square meters (including the amortized area of public zones), with an estimated consideration of around HK$3.473 billion. The transaction is still subject to relevant approvals.
Journalists learned on December 10 that the acquirer is an investment entity controlled by JD.com. China Construction Bank Tower is situated at No. 3 Connaught Road Central in Hong Kong’s Central District and is a key Grade A skyscraper for commercial use in the area. Regarding the acquisition of partial floors of the tower, JD.com told journalists that the company has always been optimistic about its development in Hong Kong and will continue to invest in supply chain-related businesses to integrate its retail, logistics, and technology R&D operations into Hong Kong’s market.
It is worth noting that JD.com launched logistics and e-commerce-related businesses in Hong Kong back in 2015, with corresponding layouts in logistics infrastructure, offline retail entities, and university-enterprise scientific research cooperation.
Last year, to improve local logistics infrastructure, JD Property Development (JD.com’s infrastructure development and management platform) acquired its first logistics real estate project, Li & Fung Tower, in Hong Kong.
Since the start of this year, JD.com has invested in and constructed a number of supply chain infrastructure projects in Hong Kong. In March, JD Express’s Hong Kong Island Operation Center was officially put into operation. In August, JD.com completed the acquisition of Hong Kong’s Kai Bo Food Supermarket, gaining access to its physical network of over 90 stores. In September, JD.com entered into a strategic cooperation with China Resources Lung Yee and announced that the first JD MALL in Hong Kong would be located in the core area of Wan Chai.
In addition, Liu Qiangdong, founder and chairman of the board of directors of JD.com Group, visited an AI (Artificial Intelligence) project at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in March this year. In November, JD.com announced the establishment of a joint laboratory with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, focusing on AI applications in the supply chain.
Moreover, JD Industrial, a subsidiary of JD.com, is about to be listed in Hong Kong. This will be the fourth Hong Kong-listed company under the JD.com system, following JD.com Group’s secondary listing in Hong Kong, and the IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) of JD Health and JD Logistics in Hong Kong.
Not long ago, Alibaba Group and Ant Group jointly announced that they had purchased 13 floors of office space in One Island East Tower in Causeway Bay from Mandarin Oriental International Group for HK$7.2 billion, planning to set up dual headquarters there.
Besides Alibaba and JD.com, tech giants such as Tencent and ByteDance also have offices in Hong Kong. In June this year, Xiaohongshu established its first office outside mainland China in Hong Kong. Driven by their respective strategic layout needs, major tech companies are accelerating their “landing” in the Hong Kong market. Around last year’s “Double 11” shopping festival, Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo successively included Hong Kong in their “free shipping zones”. By this year’s “618” shopping spree, competition among e-commerce platforms in Hong Kong has intensified to a white-hot stage. Additionally, in May 2023, Meituan launched its international food delivery brand Keeta in Hong Kong. In the third quarter, Keeta’s UE (Unit Economics) indicators saw a significant month-on-month growth, and the brand achieved profitability in October.
