Negative news always win. Then again, let me tell you that I will not try to keep writing bad news so that everything turns negative and everyone sells desperately. So, yeah, somehow I get lower clicks for writing some positive news. By the way, I do NOT write fake news yeah. So, what are your thoughts of the world economy? Bad? Very bad? Truly bad? What are your thoughts about retail? You think it’s dead? Since the MCO has meant all malls are shut, right?
Okay, here’s one place where the malls are reopening and nope, it’s not a Chinese mall company. Yes, the malls are in China. While I trust Chinese mall owners remain strong, many may prefer to believe only if it’s malls from some other countries? Yea, here we have malls whose owner is a Singaporean company. Can trust yeah? It’s a Singapore property giant… Read on.
Article in straitstimes.com CapitaLand has four malls in Wuhan, the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak. It has reopened all its malls in China that had been shut due to the country’s coronavirus lockdown.The firm said in a bourse filing that about 80 per cent of stores in CapitaLand’s malls and business parks in China were operational as at March 31 2020. (YES, it’s since March yeah…)
In a separate filing, CapitaLand Retail China Trust (CRCT) said its portfolio had seen improvements in business activity and footfall for March when compared to the month before. CRCT Management chief executive Tan Tze Wooi said, “While we expect short-term volatility to our business due to Covid-19, we maintain our long-term collaborative stance with our business partners and a positive view of the China market.” About 95%of Capitaland’s office tenants have also resumed operations. Please do refer to the full Article in straitstimes.com
What this means is that if we have also won in our battle against COVID-19, our malls could also reopen and the tenants will also be re-opening. Yes, I fully understand that the mall visitors cannot suddenly return to normal, of course they would not. However, with the malls shut currently, all the tenants and the malls are suffering from zero revenues and rentals. (Many malls are waiving the rental. Earlier news here)
When the malls reopen and even if we have just 30% of the usual visitor numbers, the recovery could now slowly start. Tenants could now slowly see their sales numbers increase and at least they could have money to pay their people too. Yeah, I would definitely visit the mall with masks on as long as my Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah says that it is okay to go ahead. I already know that the Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul would also prefer for me to start spending money in the malls too. Okay, I shall do both once MCO is lifted and mall visits are allowed. As for now, please stay at home.
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