Fosun sues over Shanghai land sale to competitor

Property developer Fosun International (656.HKG) filed a lawsuit in Shanghai stating that a parcel of land along the Bund was wrongly sold to competitor Soho China (0410.HKG) when it should have first been offered to Fosun, The Wall Street Journal reported. Fosun owns half of the piece of land, but its former partners Greentown China Holdings (3900.HKG) and Shanghai Zendai (0755.HKG) property sold the other half to Soho last year for US$628 million. Fosun announced the suit in stock-exchange filings Thursday, stating that the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court had agreed to hear the case. Soho China said that some of its operating units may have been named as defendants in the case. The piece of land under question is 45,472 square meters and lies south of the historic Bund area along the Huangpu River. The dispute comes at a time when stronger developers are snatching up real estate being unloaded by cash-strapped firms that are struggling under government restrictions to curb rising home prices.