Hong Kong’s ‘Cassette King’ sells The Center offices to DBS at discount amid property woes

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Singapore’s largest banking group paid HK$700 million, or about HK$26,000 per square foot, for the 66th floor of The Center building in Sheung Wan.

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Exterior view of The Center building in Central on 2 November 2017. Photo: Nora Tam

Salina Li

Published: 7:30pm, 27 Sep 2024

DBS Bank (Hong Kong) bought an entire floor of offices in what was formerly the world’s most expensive tower, taking advantage of a commercial property slump to expand its footprint in the city.

Singapore’s largest banking group paid HK$700 million, or about HK$26,000 per square foot, for the 66th floor of The Center building in Central from David Chan Ping-chi, a Hong Kong tycoon known as the “Cassettes King”. The property was handed over on Thursday, according to the local land registry.

The purchase price amounted to a discount of about 21 per cent from Chan’s purchase price in 2018, when he was part of the consortium that paid a combined HK$40.2 billion for the entire building from tycoon Li Ka-shing. Chan owned seven floors in the building, including the 66th floor that measures 26,967 sq ft.

DBS will own 10 floors at The Center after its purchase, from the 10th through the 18th floors, excluding 13th and 14th because those numbers are considered unlucky, as well as levels 50, 66 and 73. Regus Centre (HK) has been the current tenant of level 66 since 2020; its lease is expiring in October 2026.

An undated photograph of three members of the consortium that paid HK$40.2 billion for The Center in 2018. (L to R) Lo Man-tuen, the Fujian-born founder of Wing Li Group; David Chan Ping-chi, chairman of ACME Group, with the moniker “Cassettes King” and Johnny Cheung, whose Man Sun Property in Tuen Mun focuses on retail property investments. Photo: Handout

The purchase comes as Hong Kong’s office leasing market is in a troubling slump. Nearly a fifth of the commercial floor space across the city remains unoccupied, an unprecedented level of vacancy that is casting a pall over Hong Kong’s claim to be Asia’s financial hub. Rental levels have fallen to levels last seen in 2015, according to analysts.