II All China 2020  will close this Friday.  If you’re an institutional investor into listed equities who can vote I’d be really grateful if  you did!  

Headlines

l  Y’day: NKY +2.24%, HSI -0.56%, SHCOMP +1.75%, KOSPI +0.07%

l  Overnight: Dow +0.89%, SPX +0.72%, Nasdaq +1.47%

l  US: Talks on a new virus-relief plan reportedly making slow progress in Congress

l  US: Trump says he may act to stop evictions amid virus-aid talks

l  US: Trump Says TikTok Must Sell US Arm by Sept 15, or Close

l  US: Facebook Leases 730,000ft² at Vornado’s Farley Building, Vornado gains 8.5%

l  US: ISM Manuf #came in better than xpctd, signaling further signs of recovery

l  CN-US: US issues alert a type of malware seen frequently by security rschrs is tied to the CN govt

l  CN-US: China journalists US visa to end on Aug 6 according to Global Times

l  CN: PBOC says China will make monetary policy more flexible & tgted in H2

l  CN: Zoom to shift to 'partner-only' model in China, suspending direct sales

l  HK: Reports 80 new coronavirus cases, lowest since July 21.  R_t 0.92

l  HK: 50 preliminary cases y’day - lowest in a fortnight

l  HK: Mainland Nucleic Acid Testing Support Team hope to ↑ tests to 100k-200k/day (8,804/day Jul avg)

l  HK: Q2 restaurant value of total receipts -26% YoY.  Chinese restaurants -31.7%; non-Chinese -22.3%

l  AU: VIC 6wk stage 4 shutdown adds to 4wk lockdown to take around $10bn off economic activity

US Retail:  REIT 2Q20 avg rent collection is 74%; all reported improving collections for July (80%)

Finally:  Discount grocer Aldi plans to open >70 US stores by yr end. It will bring Aldi to the Phoenix area for the 1^st time & add more stores to states incl NY, Texas, Kansas & California. Even b/f the pandemic, Aldi US had big ambitions. Now in the middle of a 5yr plan to become 3^rd-largest grocer in the US, a/f Walmart & Kroger, by 2022 w/ 2,500 stores.  To do that, the co said it wld invest $5.3bn to build hundreds of new stores, remodel older locations & add to its food assortment.  W/ the pandemic, Aldi has other factors that cld work in its favor: Americans are spending more on groceries than usual, & they’re looking for deals b/c of rising prices, high unemployment & economic uncertainty.  Grocery spending is ↑ ~10%YoY at grocers & big-box stores, per mkt rsch firm IRI. At value chains, such as Aldi & Dollar General, it’s even higher — closer to 15% to 20%YoY. (MSN) 

NDRC rolled out detailed guidelines for infrastructure-REITS: (Sina)

(1) Focused regions: Bohai Rim, Xiong'an new area, Yangtze River Delta, GBA, Yangtze River economic belt;

(2) Qualified areas: logistics warehouse, data center, & industrial park.

Relevant stocks to potentially benefit: Vanke (logistics warehouse), & CMSK (industrial parks); 

(3) Hotel, commercial mall, office & resi assets are NOT in the scope of infrastructure-REITS;

(4) W/ good operation track record in  last 3yrs, + xpctd cash yld not lower than 4% nxt 3yrs

China’s outstanding property loans by the end of June ↑13.1%YoY to Rmb47.4trn ($6.79trn). (Reuters)

SoftBank-backed Beike aims for $1b NYSE IPO. It’s a Chinese online property brokerage. (Mingtiandi)

Burberry opens 1^st social retail store in Shenzhen, China, claiming to blend physical & social worlds w/ a suite of digital technologies powered by Chinese internet giant Tencent. (China Daily)

A-share property ETFs saw strong capital inflows (Wind)  186.5% vs 4mths ago, triggered by relatively low valuation with solid fundamentals amid an overall neutral policy tone.  I’d flag COGO in HK still trading sub 3.5x PE.

Hainan: duty-free retail spending by tourists + 234% YoY in July (21 Jingjin)  Hainan ↑ annual tax-free shopping quota from Rmb30k to Rmb100k per person from 1 July.

More flexible admin procedures of land conversion in GBA (Sina) Ministry of Nature Resources unveiled a notice to support some land conversion in Guangdong  1) explore use of existing construction land for resi devt; 2) support a pilot project that converts arable lands into construction lands in Shenzhen.

Ali Cloud adds another 3 Hyper Data centers to its Cloud Computing Arsenal. In Hangzhou, Nantong & Ulanquab, utilize self-devpd, state-of-the-art servers & artificial intelligence chips. (Yicai Global)

Country Garden Jul contract sales Rmb54.3b (+27.5%YoY) w/ GFA 6.37m m² (+33.4%YoY). (Co)

Aoyuan Jul contract sales Rmb9.55b (+43%YoY), Jan-Jul Rmb60.4b. (Co)

GZ R&F Jul contract sales Rmb10.7b (+2%YoY), GFA 999,400m² (+4%YoY), Jan-Jul Rmb61.8b w/ GFA 5.3m m². (Co)

Evergrande unveils 6 EV car designs, no detail on production. Evergrande reiterated its pledge to become the largest & most powerful new energy automobile group in the world in 3-5yrs. (36KR)

Only 1180 new homes sold in Jul, ↓26%MoM & the consecutive 2^nd mth of ↓. Most (300 units) from CKA’s Sea To Sky. (HKET)

HK Jun home prices ↑ to 10-mth high as buyers defy coronavirus in search for safe haven assets. Jun’s index of used homes ↑ 0.1% to 386.1, according to Rating & Valn Dept. (SCMP)

Wharf 1H revenue HK$5.55b, Interim Div HK 20 cents/sh, loss HK$1.74b vs profit HK$2.45b YoY, underlying loss (excl IP revaln deficit) HK$1.13b vs profit HK$2.24b YoY. (Co)

Henderson Land puts 12 units in Aquila Square Mile, Mong Kok up for sale Fri, effective price HK$22,927-24,657/ft². (HKET)

HK Ferry / Empire launched 123 more units in Seacoast Royale, Tuen Mun, effective price HK$12,498-18,154/ft². To be started sales as soon as this wk. (HKET)

Group led by China Resources Capital Mgt reportedly close to buying a majority stake in City’super (BBG), valuing the high-end HK supermarket chain at almost US$300m. CR Capital & co-investors reportedly plan to acquire 65% from owners led by The Fenix Group.  Former Wheelock chairman Peter Woo, who owns ~39% of the grocery chain, intends to sell down part of his stake.

Investor cut asking prices for the Center office floors (HK01) An investor in consortium that acq’d The Center from CKA 3yrs ago cut asking prices by 30% (to HK$29k psf) to sell 3 of the floors he owns.

Carpark space at Ultima sold at HK$6.6mn, breaks record (HKET) Ultima (developed by SHKP) in Homantin was transacted in the secondary market, a new record price for residential car parks in HK.

Kabouter disposes Ascendas India Trust 3.46m units for S$4.8m, interest ↓to 9.999% from 10.3%. (Co)

Ascendas Funds Mngt transfers 90m Ascendas REIT units to Ascendas Land Int’l, as internal restructuring. AFM’s interest in Ascendas REIT will be ↓to 0.15% from 2.64%. (Co)

CapitaLand: shrs issued by way of a transfer of treasury shares pursuant to the Restricted Sh Plan 2020: Chaly Mah Chee Kheong 23,426 shrs, Anthony Lim Wen King 15,950 shrs, Goh Swee Chen 14,375 shrs, Ng Kee Choe 78,239 shrs, Amirsham Bin A Aziz 24,097 shrs,  Stephen Lee Ching Yen 18,839 shrs, Philip Nalliah Pillai 18,631 shrs, Kee Teck Koon 19,340 shrs. (Co)

Australia’s dwelling approvals for Jun ↓ 4.9% to 8yr low. (Perth Now)

Cromwell brought an application in Federal Court seeking preliminary discov from ARA + Gordon Tang. Cromwell reports positive outcomes from funds mgmt biz in Australia, Poland & the Netherlands.  Investors representing 90.1% of issued capital elected to continue w/ their invsmt in DPF. (Co)

BWP Trust FY revenue beat highest analyst est. FY revenue A$155.8m, ↓0.3%YoY. FY distributable profit A$117.5m, ↑0.9%YoY. FY net income A$210.6m, ↑24%YoY. FY final distribution/shr A$0.0927 vs. A$0.0918 YoY.  (Co)

Aeon Co’s stake in Aeon Mall ↑to 56.96% from 56.05%. (Kabutan)

GLP J-REIT sells logistics facility in Kobe for Y1.9bn ($17m). (Nikkei RE)

7-11 owner to buy Marathon Petroleum’s Speedway gas stations for $21b, to be paid in cash + partly financed using debt. Will add ~3,900 stores to co’s existing 9,800 locations in US. (Co) 

India GST Collections ↓14% to $12b in July. (bbg)

Vista Land allots PHP25b for capex this yr, 90% for construction & land devt. (Phil Star)

SM Prime 1H net income Php10.4b, ↓46%YoY. Revenue Php43.7b. SM Prime Philippine malls' rent income ↓44%YoY to Php13.1b. Resi revenue Php23.7b, ↑11%. Commercial revenue +16% to Php2.5b. (Inquirer)

RE transactions in S. Korea by foreign nationals hit 2,090 in Jun, highest mthly rate since 2015. (Korea Joongang Daily)

* My pa holdings: BAC US, 1 HK, 6 HK, ST SP