Chinese Company Shanghai Zendai Invest R80bn in South African Property Development
Category Commercial Property News
The South African Commercial and Industrial Property Market has recently experienced an injection
of investment capital from the East with Chinese firm Shanghai Zendai purchasing 1600ha of land
from explosives company AECI. They plan to build a mini city which will see the Chinese firm invest
approximately R80bn and create 24 000 direct jobs over the next 10 to 15 years.
Annenberg Property Group first had interest from the East in 2000 when Dudley Annenberg of
Annenberg Property Group sold a property in Airport Industria to Japanese owned NGK ceramics.
This lead to an investment of more than R100 million which was the largest investment by a
Japanese company in the Western Cape at the time.
Annenberg recalls “The negotiations were challenging as the Japanese do business differently to the
way we operate. It took 6 months of negotiations to conclude the deal which we were told had been
expedited, as usually such a deal could take as long as 2 years to come to fruition."
Annenberg Property Group have noted a spike in enquiries from Chinese companies looking to
establish or expand their business operations in Cape Town. Their interests range from Chinese
retail outlets selling cheap imported Chinese goods, to manufacturing and assembly plants catering
for the green energy market. Andries Louw from Annenberg Property Group commented that "The
language barrier, lack of FICA documentation and perceived “flight risk” of Chinese tenants are some
of the obstacles that have to be overcome, but when the right processes are followed, many of the
risks can be mitigated and we have to date not had any problems with the Chinese tenants we have
placed.”
Further information on the Shanghai Zendai investment project can be found here:
Author: Andries Louw
