BlackRock sells last major Shanghai asset at discount...China industrial profits fall in Jan-Feb...Tencent takes €1.2bn stake in Ubisoft spin-off
BlackRock sells last major Shanghai asset at discount
The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock is selling its last major asset in Shanghai for two-thirds of what it paid, as it beats a retreat from the country’s battered property market, reports the South China Morning Post. The US firm is selling Trinity Place, a 27-storey office tower on Changshou Road in Shanghai’s Putuo District for RMB 900 million ($124 million), according to sources familiar with the matter. The asking price is 34% lower than what it paid in 2017 to acquire what was then called Central Park from Hong Kong Shanghai Alliance Holdings, according to the Post’s calculation based on a stock exchange filing.
Earlier, BlackRock forfeited two office towers in Shanghai’s Waterfront Place business zone after defaulting on a RMB 780 million syndicated loan. The office complex is now being offloaded to DCL Investments, a distressed-assets specialist, for RMB 700 million. This represents a discount of more than 40% from the acquisition price in 2018, according to reports from Bloomberg.
As the nationwide property slump continues to weigh on returns, BlackRock is not the only investor dialling back its presence in China. Foreign investors were net sellers in the country’s real estate market for a fourth straight year in 2024, buying just $5.9 billion worth of office, hotel, industrial and retail assets, the lowest level since 2014, according to MSCI.
China industrial profits fall in Jan-Feb
China's industrial profits slipped in the first two months of 2025, signalling a challenging period ahead for businesses as they navigate persistent deflationary forces and an escalating trade war with the United States, reports Reuters. The economy got off to an uneven start this year, as retail sales growth accelerated while consumer and producer prices contracted and exports remained sluggish, maintaining pressure on policymakers to ramp up stimulus.
Industrial profits fell 0.3% in the January-February period from the same period last year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This compared with an 11% increase in earnings in December.
China combines the profits data for January and February to smooth out the impact of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, the timing for which changes each year.
Tencent takes €1.2bn stake in Ubisoft spin-off
Chinese technology giant Tencent is taking a €1.2 billion stake in a new spin-off from Ubisoft, as the struggling French games developer attempts to shore up its balance sheet, reports the Financial Times. The deal values a new subsidiary that will run Ubisoft’s top franchises—including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six—at about €4 billion.
Shenzhen-based Tencent, one of the world’s largest video games companies by sales, will own about a quarter of the new unit, with Ubisoft controlling the remainder. Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft’s co-founder and chief executive, said the deal marked a “new chapter” for the Paris-based company as it strives to create “evergreen, growing” games.
Ubisoft’s shares have fallen over 33% in the past year to a market capitalisation of €1.7 billion, despite receiving a bump last week following the much-anticipated launch of the latest instalment in its Assassin’s Creed franchise, which had previously been delayed.
China opens path to A-share listings revival
Chinese financial authorities have told some companies and advisers that they can begin the process of launching mainland initial public offerings once more, in an early sign of a rebound in listings in the world’s second-largest economy, reports the Financial Times. Authorities have informed groups in the technology, advanced manufacturing and consumer sectors in the past few weeks that they can file IPO paperwork, according to investors and advisers familiar with the mainland listings regime.
The move appears to mark a shift in the government’s approach to listings, after its previous concerns that IPOs could further weigh on a stock market that, until autumn last year, had been falling for years.
“We feel that the regulators’ attitude towards A share IPOs as well as share placement is more open compared to [the] past two years. They are also approaching some quality issuer candidates to ask them to prepare to file,” said a person familiar with the listings process.
Wall Street turns bullish on China
Hong Kong’s stock market is roaring ahead of the rest of the world so far this year, prompting major foreign investment banks to raise their targets for Chinese equity indexes amid a surprise earnings rebound, improving policy signals and surging domestic investor confidence, reports Caixin.
Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan have both raised their 2025 targets for key Chinese indexes, citing structural valuation recovery and a shift in market sentiment. Morgan Stanley lifted its year-end forecast for the Hang Seng Index to 25,800—up from 24,000 and its second revision in a month—implying a 9.4% jump from the March 27 close of 23,578. The bank also raised its target for the MSCI China Index from 77 to 83.
J.P. Morgan, in its second-quarter outlook, boosted its 2025 MSCI China Index target from 67 to 80, and its bull-case scenario from 76 to 89. It also raised earnings forecasts for Chinese firms by 5% for both 2024 and 2025. The bank noted that a rebound in fourth-quarter earnings—following 13 straight quarters of underperformance—has fueled investor optimism. About 8% of companies in the index beat expectations last quarter.