Developer reassures shareholders

Listed developer Trans Tasman Properties was quizzed yesterday about how much more money would be poured into its Hong Kong real estate deals.

Last year, the developer spent $264.5 million on four Hong Kong properties and is now building multi-level towers on two of them.

However, executive chairman Don Fletcher reassured shareholders at the annual meeting in Christchurch that most of the financial outlay for the Hong Kong developments had been made. Hong Kong land costs were so high the bulk of spending was already over before construction began.

The company, which shifted head office from Auckland to Singapore on January 1, has 10 per cent of its assets in Australia, 45 per cent in New Zealand and 45 per cent in Hong Kong, but Fletcher still sees little value in buying more properties here.