The property market witnessed a strong start to the year with solid performances in most sectors in 1Q16, especially residential sale volumes in major cities and tourist destination. In-line with our forecast, M&A activities continue where it left off in 2015 with deal volumes increasing in the first three months of 2016 and many successful transactions.
We continue to see strong interest from foreign investors from South Korea, Japan and Singapore. The most notable transaction in 1Q16 was the deal between Keppel Land and the owners of Empire City in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Keppel Land acquired 40% interest for total consideration of USD 93.9 million.
In the first quarter of 2016, we witnessed many transactions in investment assets (in core producing properties), such as A&B Tower (HCMC), The Nam Hai Resort (Quang Nam Province), TNR Tower (Hanoi City), and Six Sense Con Dao Resort (Ba Ria Vung Tau Province). The A&B Tower in HCMC has attracted much attention from the market due to the good quality of the office building and asset traded has been rare District 1. Besides, there are still many M&A deals in development sites between foreign and local developers.
We expect M&A activity to improve through 2016 with more transactions over the remaining of the year thanks to the combination of improve property market, positive change in legislation and soft conditions in other countries in the region.