Chinese Property Developer Huang Nubo has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire 300 square kilometers of Iceland. The area equals 3 per mille of the total area of Iceland.
Huang Nubo, the 55-year-old chairman of Beijing-based Zhongkun Investment, plans to buy the land for US$100 million and develop a hotel and golf course complex, according to the company. The development costs are not known.
A company spokesman said: “It is inconvenient to disclose the overall plan now and Huang will publicize more details himself in Beijing on Friday.”
Huang is buying a rural area known as Grimsstadir a Fjollum. He awaits approval from the Icelandic government.
The tycoon ranked 114th on Forbes’s 2009 list of the richest people on China’s mainland, with personal assets worth 5.26 billion yuan (US$824 million).
Huang has developed tourism sites in the US, Japan, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and other places across China.
Critical people in Iceland are worried, Huang’s real intention is to help China gain a tactical foothold in the North Atlantic.
Katrin Juliusdottier, Iceland’s Minister of Culture, has called the reaction hysterical. There is nothing wrong in a Chinese person wanting to buy a piece of land and invest in Iceland’s tourism like so many other foreigners have done, she says.
