High-rise buildings in Hanoi fall into foreign hands The move of South Korean Lotte taking over Diamond Plaza has been followed by a Hong Kong fund buying Indochina Land’s projects. More deals are expected to be made this year.   An analyst noted that a series of large real estate projects have changed hands recently. Foreign investors see Vietnam as a lucrative real estate market, while project developers believe it’s now the right time to sell projects for profit. The analyst commented that foreign investors mostly target operational projects which clearly can bring profits. The first merger & acquisition deal in the real estate market in 2015 was Lotte taking over Diamond Plaza. Declining to reveal the value of the deal, Lotte’s president said that Lotte now holds 70 percent of the total capital of the building. The deal has once again affirmed Lotte’s plan to penetrate more deeply into the Vietnamese real estate market. Indochina Land has announced it has wrapped up a deal to transfer some projects to an investment fund managed by Gaw Capital Partners, a fund management company with headquarters in Hong Kong. The projects transferred include Plaza Hanoi, Hyatt Regency Da Nang and two others in Quang Nam and HCM City. Prior to that, two investors from Japan - Hankyu Realty and Nishi Nippon Railroad – bought the Nguyen Phuc Company, the investor of Flora Anh Dao which has estimated total development cost of VND500 billion. International media reported that Seoul Court has allowed the investor to sell Keangnam Landmark 72 in Hanoi to pay debts. The tallest building in Vietnam is valued at $770 million. If this can be sold, this will be the biggest deal in the field in 2015. The analyst noted that groups from Japan Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong had injected the most money into the Vietnamese real estate market. Peter Ryder, managing director of Indochina Capital, said that the investment and disinvestment strategies are both very important for real estate investment funds. Indochina Capital is still looking for high-end projects in its long-term business strategy. The commitments Indochina Capital made with apartment and villa owners at Indochina Plaza Hanoi and Hyatt Regency Da Nang will still be implemented despite the transfer of the projects. Phan Xuan Can, chair of Sohovietnam, noted that taking over operational projects which can bring profits now and have high potential in the future, is the choice of many investors. CBRE Vietnam’s managing director Marc Townsend noted that investors are still cautious about Vietnam. However, with a series of new policies on encouraging foreign investment, the investment wave will be stronger in the near future. Chi Mai, VNN