Swire Properties and Time Warner Agree to Lease at Oxford House in Island East

Swire Properties and Time Warner today announced an agreement for Time Warner to lease up to 12 floors (133,000 square feet) of office space at Oxford House in Hong Kong. The agreement is the largest single leasing commitment in the territory this year. The agreement is subject to completion of final documentation and approvals.

Oxford House will become Time Warner's headquarters in Asia and will house most of its business units, including Time Warner Corporate, Time Inc. Asia, Time Life, Asiaweek, Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Warner Bros. Far East Theatrical, CNN, Turner Broadcasting System International, TNT, Cartoon Network and Turner Entertainment Networks Asia. Upon completion of Oxford House, which is expected in September, Time Warner will consolidate most of its Hong Kong offices into a single building for the first time since it began operating in Hong Kong. Currently, Time Warner's operations are located in various office buildings geographically dispersed throughout Hong Kong from Chai Wan to Central.

Time Warner will occupy up to 12 floors of Oxford House from the 29th floor to the 40th floor, with the 40th floor serving as the new home for CNN's Hong Kong studio, complete with panoramic views of East Hong Kong.

Stephan Spurr, Director and General Manager of Swire Properties, said: "We are delighted that Time Warner, the world's leading media company, has chosen Oxford House to accommodate its Asian regional headquarters. Securing such a high-profile organization as a key tenant is significant and we were pleased to be able to meet Time Warner's exacting accommodation standards. Clearly, our office developments have the capability to anticipate and satisfy tenants' needs in terms of both the quality of their facilities and our management of them."

Philip Pitruzzello, Vice President of real estate for Time Warner, said: "Time Warner is very pleased with the opportunity to co-locate most of our local operations at Oxford House and to work with Swire, which has proven to be an excellent organization with high quality properties and management. The consolidation of our offices at Oxford House is a reflection of Time Warner's commitment to Asia and of the importance of the region as a source of growth for our company. Bringing together most of our offices under one roof will enable us to enhance our ability to serve our customers across many lines of business and to continue to build our presence in Hong Kong as the center for our Asian operations."

Oxford House is equipped with cutting-edge telecommunications and information infrastructure featuring dual feed Cat.5 and fiber optic cabling which enable broadband telecommunications applications such as video conferencing and high-speed data transmission.

Swire Properties has a long-term commitment in Island East. The area is already a functioning, successful high technology office community in Hong Kong and home to some of the territory's largest financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citibank, Bank of Bermuda and Fuji Bank.