Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau sets 2 records in 24 hours: diamonds, property

Hong Kong apartment sells for record $76.7 mn AFP AFP – Fri, Dec 25, 2015 6:40 AM AEDT . Property prices in Hong Kong, famous for its sky-high rent and super-rich tycoons, have more than doubled in 6 years due to record low interest rates and a flood of wealthy buyers from mainland China A luxury apartment in Hong Kong sold for a record HK$594.7 million ($76.7 million), days before Christmas, making it the most expensive flat in the city and possibly in Asia, reports said Friday. An unidentified buyer paid more than HK$103,700 per-square-foot for the 5,732 square-foot (532 square-metre) unit at the luxury 39 Conduit Road apartment tower in the southern Chinese city's upmarket Mid-Levels residential area, The Apple Daily and The Standard reported. The condominium, on the 46th floor with a view of the iconic Victoria Harbour and a 1,754 square-feet rooftop, had a list price of HK$646.48 million on developer Henderson Land Properties' website. The price beats the previous record HK$470 million paid for a luxury unit which takes up the entire eighth floor of the Opus Hong Kong, a 12-storey residential building designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, in 2012. Henderson Land was not available for comment Friday, a public holiday. This comes as analysts said a US interest rate hike could put an end to the housing boom in the Chinese city which maintains a decades old peg with the US dollar. Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA warned the residential market was at a "turning point", with prices possibly dropping 17 percent by 2017, while other firms have tipped falls of up to 30 percent. Hong Kong's de facto central bank last Thursday raised its base interest rate by 25 points to 0.75 percent after the US Federal Reserve announced its first rate increase in more than nine years. But chief analyst for Midland Realty Buggle Lau said the record-breaking purchase does not reflect the bigger picture of the overall property market in the city. "The super-rich, I don't think the small increase in the interest rates have any impact on their purchasing power," Lau said. "This is exceptional, it can't reflect the whole market," which he described overall as "sluggish". Property prices in Hong Kong, famous for its sky-high rent and super-rich tycoons, have more than doubled in six years due to record low interest rates and a flood of wealthy buyers from mainland China. Many residents complain they can no longer afford decent accommodation in the city of seven million people, and analysts say property ownership is out of reach even for the upper middle class. =================================================================================== Date November 13, 2015 Read later Frederik Balfour Joseph Lau, 64, made his fortune in real estate. Photo: Gcmt Pure coincidence or impeccable timing? Either way, Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau has just pulled off a twofer for the history books. On Wednesday night he paid 48.6 million Swiss francs ($67.92 million) at Sotheby's in Geneva for a 12.03-carat blue diamond, the most ever spent on a gem at auction. Then, less than 24 hours later, his company Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd sold an office tower in Hong Kong for $HK12.5 billion ($2.25 billion), more than twice the previous record for a commercial sale. Mr Lau, 64, who made his fortune in real estate, has been on a buying spree, collecting paintings from blue-chip artists as well as jewellery. He also generated headlines last year when he was convicted in Macau for bribery and money laundering in a trial he didn't attend. He's appealing the conviction. Mr Lau's company sold the 26-storey Mass Mutual Tower in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district to Chinese developer Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd. Chinese Estates paid HK$460 million for the tower when it bought part of it in 1987 and the rest in 1991, yielding a 27-fold return. Advertisement It was the company's third property sale to Evergrande this year, said Chinese Estates spokeswoman Eunice Yeung. In July, it sold a residential, commercial and hotel complex in the western Chinese city of Chengdu for HK$6.5 billion. The company sold another property in nearby Chongqing for HK$1.75 billion. The previous most-expensive transaction for an office tower in Hong Kong was the HK$5.4 billion paid by Citigroup Inc. to a unit of Wheelock & Co. in 2014. Lichtenstein painting Mr Lau has also been busy on the auction circuit this year. On May 12 he picked up Roy Lichtenstein's painting "The Ring (Engagement)" at Sotheby's New York auction for $41.7 million, just a day after purchasing Pablo Picasso's "Buste de femme" across town at Christie's for $67.4 million. Unlike Liu Yiqian, a Chinese billionaire collector who this week bought an Amedeo Modigliani nude for $170.4 million and pays for his purchases using his AMEX card, Mr Lau wired the money to the two auction houses in New York, according to copies of receipts obtained by Bloomberg. Mr Lau's diamond purchase on Nov. 11 came a day after he paid 28.7 million Swiss francs for a 16.08-carat pink diamond at a sale by Christie's in Geneva. Both purchases were made for his seven-year-old daughter Josephine, his office said. Known as the "Blue Moon," the record-breaking gem had a pre-sale estimate of 34.2 million francs to 53.7 million francs, according to Sotheby's website, and has the highest possible colour grade of fancy vivid blue. Mr Lau renamed it "The Blue Moon of Josephine" and christened the pink diamond "Sweet Josephine." Bribery conviction Last year he bought pieces of jewellery for another daughter, 13-year-old Zoe: the 9.75-carat "Zoe Diamond" for $32.6 million at Sotheby's New York, and the "Zoe Red" ruby for HK$65 million ($8.4 million) at Christie's Hong Kong. Not all headline news about Mr Lau has been good. In March 2014 he stepped down as chairman of Chinese Estates after he was convicted in Macau for bribery and money laundering in connection with land secured for a luxury housing project. Mr Lau, who did not attend the trial, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison. As Hong Kong and Macau do not have an extradition treaty, he remains free. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/hong-kong-billionaire-joseph-lau-sets-2-records-in-24-hours-diamonds-property-20151112-gkxy1f.html#ixzz3vQjhISwW Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook ===================================================== Tallest Seattle Tower Said to Sell for Over $700 Million by empty text Hui-yong Yu empty text June 4, 2015 A group led by Gaw Capital Partners agreed to buy Columbia Center, Seattle’s tallest tower, for more than $700 million, said two people with knowledge of the deal. The price would be a record for an individual office building in the city. Gaw Capital, the Hong Kong-based property investment company led by Goodwin Gaw, is joining with other Asian investors to buy the 76-story building, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the sale is private. The seller is Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners, which in 2007 paid $621 million for the tower, at the time the highest price paid for a single Seattle office building, according to property-research firm Real Capital Analytics Inc. Columbia Center is the second-tallest U.S. building west of Chicago, after U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles. Brokerage Eastdil Secured LLC is representing Beacon in the sale. Foreign investors are flocking to U.S. real estate for returns that exceed yields on fixed-income assets with a similar moderate-risk profile. Seattle’s large base of technology jobs has helped make the city one of the top U.S. markets for property investors. Sylvia Lee, a Gaw Capital spokeswoman, said she had no immediate comment. Andy Wattula, the Beacon executive who oversees asset management and acquisitions in the Pacific Northwest, declined to comment. Gaw Capital’s planned purchase was cited in a May 29 report by CBRE Group Inc., the world’s biggest commercial-property broker. Columbia Center, at 701 Fifth Ave., has about 1.5 million square feet (139,400 square meters). There’s an observatory on the 73rd floor and a private club on the top two floors. Occupancy at the property, built in 1985, is about 87 percent. Amazon.com Inc. had been the main tenant in Columbia Center before it left for a new headquarters campus starting in 2010. Its departure coupled with the financial crisis left the building more than a third empty. Beacon renegotiated the debt, added amenities and signed new tenants including Dropbox Inc., a Web service for sharing files.

Major earthquake rocks Iran, Gulf and India

Major earthquake rocks Iran, Gulf and India Tue, Apr 16 07:27 AM EDT DUBAI (Reuters) - A major 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Iran near the border with Pakistan on Tuesday and tremors were felt in India and Gulf states. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 5.44 a.m. ET at a depth of 15.2 km (9.4 miles). The epicenter was in southeast Iran in an area of mountains and desert. It was located 201 km (125 miles) southeast of the Iranian city of Zahedan and 250 km northwest of Turbat in Pakistan, USGS said. Tall buildings shook in India's capital New Delhi, sending people running into the streets, witnesses said. People also evacuated shaking buildings in Qatar and Dubai, residents said. A powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck close to Iran's only nuclear power station on April 9, killing 37 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed homes and devastated two villages. Most of Iran's nuclear-related facilities are located in central Iran or its west, including the Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast. A U.S. Institute for Science and International Security map did not show any nuclear-linked facilities in southeastern Iran close to Pakistan. (Writing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Major earthquake rocks Iran, Gulf and India Tue, Apr 16 07:27 AM EDT DUBAI (Reuters) - A major 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Iran near the border with Pakistan on Tuesday and tremors were felt in India and Gulf states. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 5.44 a.m. ET at a depth of 15.2 km (9.4 miles). The epicenter was in southeast Iran in an area of mountains and desert. It was located 201 km (125 miles) southeast of the Iranian city of Zahedan and 250 km northwest of Turbat in Pakistan, USGS said. Tall buildings shook in India's capital New Delhi, sending people running into the streets, witnesses said. People also evacuated shaking buildings in Qatar and Dubai, residents said. A powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck close to Iran's only nuclear power station on April 9, killing 37 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed homes and devastated two villages. Most of Iran's nuclear-related facilities are located in central Iran or its west, including the Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast. A U.S. Institute for Science and International Security map did not show any nuclear-linked facilities in southeastern Iran close to Pakistan. (Writing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Janet Lawrence) ============= 10-degree Map Centered at 30°N,60°E MAP 7.8 2013/04/16 10:44:21 28.107 62.053 82.0 IRAN-PAKISTAN BORDER REGION Skip to earthquake lists Strong 7.8 earthquake hits Iran, tremors felt in UAE The National staff Apr 16, 2013 Save this article -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A strong 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Iran, near the border with Pakistan, at 10.44 GMT (2.44pm UAE) today at a depth of 73 miles, the US Geological survey said. Related • ■ Earthquake: 37 dead and 850 injured in Iran by tremor that rocked UAE •■ Tremors from Pakistan quake ripple across UAE The epicentre was in south-east Iran in an area of mountains and desert, 201 kilometres south-east of the Iranian city of Zahedan and 250km north-west of Turbat in Pakistan, the USGS said. Tremors were felt across the Arabian Gulf and in New Delhi. Buildings in Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi were evacuated. Tall buildings shook in India’s capital New Delhi, sending people running into the streets, witnesses said. People also evacuated shaking buildings in Qatar and Dubai, residents said. A powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station on April 9, killing 37 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed homes and devastated two villages. More to follow newsdesk@thenational.ae ================ Posted by Web Desk / Reuters / AFP QUETTA: A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck parts of Pakistan and neighbouring countries on Tuesday killing 34 people, said officials. A major 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Iran near the border with Pakistan and tremors were felt in India and Gulf states. The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at 10:44 GMT at a depth of 15.2 km. The epicentre was in southeast Iran in an area of mountains and desert. It was located 201 km southeast of the Iranian city of Zahedan and 250 km northwest of Turbat in Pakistan, USGS said. Several people were injured in the Panjgur and Mashkeel areas of Balochistan, while around 50 people sustained injuries in Karachi in incidents of roof collapse. Over 1,000 houses were partially damaged in Balochistan. An Iranian government official said he expected hundreds of deaths from the earthquake. “It was the biggest earthquake in Iran in 40 years and we are expecting hundreds of dead,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Iranian city of Saravan, which lies near the centre of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake which hit the country on Tuesday, has not seen serious damage, the Fars news agency said. Tremors were felt in Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Larkana, Jacobabad, Quetta and other cities which created panic amongst people. However, no casualties were reported PPI reported. Office workers stand outside of their buildings following an earthquake tremor in Karachi April 16, 2013. PHOTO: REUTERS Express News reported that the earthquake was felt in Rahim Yar Khan, Serai Desert, Faisalabad, and Shahdadkot. In areas near Multan and DI Khan the tremors were felt for around ten seconds, but people were scared and evacuated immediately. Buildings in Karachi were immediately evacuated after the tremors were felt. Express employees exit the Karachi office after the earthquake. PHOTO: JAHANZAIB HAQUE “My desk started shaking and we ran out of the building. Since then we are standing outside our office,” a Karachi-ite shared his experience. People anticipating aftershocks in all the main areas of Karachi refused to go inside the buildings. Shahra-e-Faisal, an area with numerous offices, was crowded with people who evacuated their offices and were hesitant to go back inside the buildings. People evacuating from buildings in Karachi. PHOTO: SARA MUZZAMIL “Two of my colleagues fainted during the tremor but we were successful in evacuating through our emergency exit,” a citizen expressed his experience. After the sudden halt in flights, airport authorities announced that they would take-off as per schedule. In Balochistan, the earthquake was felt in Gadani, Harnai, Chaman and Gwadar. According to Met Office sources, the intensity of the earthquake was 5.4 magnitudes in Balochistan, however, some other geological sources said that the intensity was recorded at 6.4 magnitude. People running after the earthquake tremors. PHOTO: Maazj94 Strong tremors shook tall buildings in India’s capital New Delhi on Tuesday. A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said. The quake hit 125 kilometres (77 miles) southwest of the town of Panguna on Bougainville Island at 8:00 pm local time (10:00 GMT), at a depth of 10 kilometres. ============= Earthquake kills 157, injures 5,700 in China's Sichuan Sat, Apr 20 12:49 PM EDT 1 of 2 By Michael Martina YA'AN, China (Reuters) - China's worst earthquake in three years on Saturday killed at least 157 people and injured more than 5,700, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said. The magnitude 6.6 quake hit a remote mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province at 8:02 a.m. (0002 GMT), close to where an earthquake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008. The quake struck in Lushan county, near the city of Ya'an, at a depth of 12 km (7.5 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was felt in the provincial capital, Chengdu, and in neighboring provinces, causing many people to rush out of buildings, according to social network posts. Most of the deaths were concentrated in Lushan. Pictures on Chinese news sites showed toppled buildings and people in bloodied bandages being treated in tents outside the hospital. Water and electricity in the area were cut off by the quake. Premier Li Keqiang flew into the disaster zone by helicopter to voice support for the rescue operation. "The first 72 hours is the golden period for rescue," Li told officials, the Xinhua news agency reported. "We cannot delay by a minute." "Under the strong leadership of the party and the government, as long as we unite as one, and conduct the rescue in a scientific way, then there will be the conditions and the ability to minimize the losses to the greatest degree and to overcome the disaster," Li said. Chen Yong, the vice director of the Ya'an city government earthquake response office, told reporters: "We believe the number (of deaths) could rise somewhat, but it won't rise by much." Xinhua said 6,000 troops were in the area to help with rescue efforts. State television CCTV said only emergency vehicles were being allowed into Ya'an, although Chengdu airport had reopened. Rescuers in Lushan had pulled 91 survivors out of rubble, Xinhua said. In villages closest to the epicenter, almost all low-rise buildings had collapsed, footage on state television showed. "We are very busy right now, there are about eight or nine injured people, the doctors are handling the cases," said a doctor at a Ya'an hospital who gave her family name as Liu. The hospital was treating head and leg injuries, she said. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was in discussions with the Red Cross Society of China on whether international support was needed. LANDSLIDE WARNING The China Meteorological Association warned of the possibility of landslides in Lushan county on Saturday and Sunday. Lushan recorded 789 aftershocks after the earthquake, the China Earthquake Administration said. A resident in Chengdu, 140 km (85 miles) from Ya'an city, told Xinhua he was on the 13th floor of a building when he felt the quake. The building shook for about 20 seconds and he saw tiles fall from nearby buildings. Ya'an is a city of 1.5 million people and is considered one of the birthplaces of Chinese tea culture. It is also the home to one of China's main centers for protecting the giant panda. "There are still shakes and tremors and our area is safe. The pandas are safe," said a spokesman for Ya'an's Bifengxia nature park which houses more than 100 pandas. Shouts and screams were heard in the background while Reuters was on the telephone with the spokesman. "There was just an aftershock, an aftershock, our office is safe," he said. Sichuan is one of the four major natural gas-producing provinces in China, and its output accounts for about 14 percent of the nation's total. Sinopec Group, Asia's largest oil refiner, said its huge Puguang gas field was unaffected. The U.S. Geological Survey initially put the magnitude at 7, but later revised it down. The devastating May 2008 quake was magnitude 7.9. In 2010, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake killed 2,700 people in Yushu, a largely Tibetan region in northwest China. (Additional reporting by Melanie Lee and Lu Jianxin in Shanghai, Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing and Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Jonathan Standing and Stephen Powell) ======= HOW TO: Measure an earthquake Source: IRIN - Mon, 3 Oct 2011 10:05 AM Author: IRIN BANGKOK, 3 October 2011 (IRIN) - While the Richter scale is the most easily recognized measure of an earthquake's magnitude, seismologists say several more dynamic measurement methods have eclipsed it since it was developed more than 70 years ago. IRIN considers current best practices around the world -from the standard magnitude indicators that replaced the Richter scale to prediction models that estimate an earthquake's economic impact on society. Moment magnitude scale (Mw) Today, the most common calculation method for magnitude - the amount of energy released by an earthquake at its source - is the moment magnitude scale (Mw). Developed in the 1970s by Hiroo Kanamori, professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, Mw was designed to succeed several magnitude scales, including the 1930s-era Richter scale, whose model was solely based on the geology of California, where earthquakes are mostly shallow. By taking into account the actual area of fault line ruptured, Mw gives a more consistent measurement to earthquakes no matter how deep. "The media still say Richter scale in news reports, but seismologists use magnitude only. Magnitude can be calculated with different formulas," Takeshi Koizumi, seismologist at the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) [ http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html ], told IRIN. Koizumi said these data are very important for seismologists to predict tsunamis and other earthquake-induced hazards. Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MMI) Unlike the Richter scale and Mw, which assess the earthquake's size in terms of magnitude, the MMI [ http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/mercalli.php ] describes earthquakes in terms of intensity. Numbers are used to describe magnitude; Roman numerals are used to express intensity. Intensity - a completely different concept - indicates how much shaking is felt and the level of damage in a specific location, according to Peeranan Towashiraporn, an earthquake engineer at the Bangkok-based Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC). [ http://www.adpc.net/2011/? ] "Many people think high-magnitude earthquakes must result in greater damage, but this is not always the case, it depends on location. If you are far from the epicentre, intensity can be low and you may feel very little shaking," Towashiraporn explained. Amod Dixit, general secretary of Nepal's National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), [http://www.nset.org.np/ ] says it is easier for non-scientists to understand earthquakes in terms of intensity. "Magnitude is a scientist's language. You and I are more concerned with the practical implications of an earthquake," he said. As a result, using magnitude to measure earthquakes often causes people to underestimate their impact. "Engineers here [in Nepal] claim to build houses that can withstand magnitude-7.0 earthquakes, but that doesn't mean it can withstand intensity IX. Low-magnitude earthquakes can also bring high intensity of shaking," Dixit said. Citing the magnitude-6.1 earthquake near Christchurch in New Zealand in February 2011 as an example, Towashiraporn agreed that magnitude alone can be misleading. "A moderate magnitude-6.1 earthquake can still cause significant damage and loss of life if it happens at a shallow depth and is very close to a highly populated area," he said. At least 181 people were killed, 1,500 injured and about 100,000 buildings destroyed or damaged, according to figures from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). [ http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usb0001igm.php ] The Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale (JMA) The JMA scale measures intensity in the units of "Shindo", and is analogous to the MMI. The only difference is JMA measures intensity from 0 to 7 and the MMI runs from I to XII. While the MMI is applied worldwide, JMA is only used in Japan and Taiwan. Koizumi said JMA gives the world's fastest intensity information. "The initial estimation comes in 1.5 minutes after an earthquake occurs. Then after a few seconds, a warning is issued to the general public on TV," he explained, adding that seismic intensity meters have been installed throughout the country, making calculation much faster. According to David Wald, seismologist at USGS, the USGS-developed ShakeMaps [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/shakemap/ �] - an automatically generated shaking and intensity map that combines instrumental measurement and local geology and earthquake information of a region - can also compute earthquake intensity in near real-time. Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) Against the decades-old debate of whether the magnitude scale or the intensity scale gives better earthquake measurement, the USGS developed this new technology in 2010. Taking into account the demographics, building types and economic and casualty data collected from past earthquakes, PAGER [ http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/pager/] estimates the shaking distribution, the number of people and settlements affected, and the possible fatalities and economic losses experienced. PAGER is still new to most people, but the information it offers is useful to governments and aid agencies. "The PAGER turns the estimates of damage into colour-coded alert levels, so local, national and international actors know what level of response is needed," Wald said. Apart from providing data for post-disaster mitigation, PAGER tops the other scales by generating information that helps prepare for earthquakes. "The PAGER highlights the most vulnerable structures that need improvement. This is especially important for developing countries where people don't always follow building codes," he said. "The system still awaits more awareness from governments, the scientific community and the media," Wald said. "To communicate the seriousness of earthquakes, magnitude and intensity alone are not enough." sh/nb/mw � IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org ==========================