Hong Kong-listed development giant Country Garden has emerged as one of the Chinese companies to have approached Harry Triguboff to buy at least part of his $6.25 billion Meriton apartment empire.
Country Garden Australia chief executive Johnson Zhang said the group had held preliminary discussions with Mr Triguboff.
“We have met him; we have had discussions with him over this,” Mr Zhang said.
“But it is only in the preliminary stage. We might be looking for someone else. We are not sure yet.’’
Mr Zhang added that he would like to learn about the Australian market from Mr Triguboff. Country Garden is a new entrant to the local market and is about to launch a sales campaign for its first apartment project, the $500 million Ryde Garden development in Sydney’s northwest.
The Australian revealed in March that Mr Triguboff was to visit Guangzhou in China’s south and would talk to Chinese developers who had signalled an interest in Meriton.
He later told The Australian: “I am of great value to them — I have all the land.”
There is also market speculation that China’s largest residential developer, China Vanke, is one of the groups that Mr Triguboff has spoken to, although this has not been confirmed. Meriton declined to comment.
Country Garden and Vanke have their headquarters in Guangdong province, in which Guangzhou is located.
Country Garden was founded in 1992 and listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2007.
It is controlled by China’s richest woman, Yang Huiyan, a 32-year-old property heiress with a fortune of $7.2bn.
Mr Zhang told The Australian the group preferred suburban sites that could sustain large garden areas.
He said the group wanted to become a major developer in Australia and was here for the long term.