UOL Group Selling Singapore Mall to Mainland Family for $292M

UOL Group has agreed to sell the Kinex mall in the eastern fringe of central Singapore for S$375 million ($291.9 million), with market sources naming mainland Chinese investors as the buyers.

Kinex consists of a three-storey retail podium situated below the Katong Regency condominium at 11 Tanjong Katong Road in the city-state’s Geylang area. SGX-listed UOL is selling the above-ground floors and basement level as a package of four strata lots spanning a net lettable area of 204,223 square feet (18,973 square metres), according to a Wednesday filing.

UOL identified the purchasers as Kinex Times Square and Xiaohong Property Management. Sources not involved in the deal linked the buyers to Elegant Group, a property firm controlled by a family surnamed Zhao from China’s Guangdong province.

“The proposed divestment provides an opportunity for the group to unlock the value of its investment in Kinex, and is part of the group’s reconstitution of its overall property portfolio,” said UOL, the builder controlled by the Wee clan behind United Overseas Bank.

2014-Era Development

The Zhao family previously made a splash in Singapore’s retail market two years ago with the acquisition of Changi City Point mall from Frasers Centrepoint Trust for $338 million (then $250 million). In 2017, a buyer linked to the family completed the en bloc purchase of the Citimac industrial complex in District 13 for S$430 million, based on local media reports.

Elegant also owns two malls under the Grantral banner in Singapore’s Clementi and MacPherson areas and six commercial properties in Australia, according to the firm’s website.

Originally built by UOL as OneKM in 2014, Kinex rebranded under its current name in 2018. The agreed price for Kinex translates to S$1,836 ($1,429) per square foot of lettable area and represents a 1.4 percent premium to an independent valuation of S$370 million by Edmund Tie.

The transaction is scheduled to close on 31 October, with UOL anticipating a gain on divestment of S$2,395,000.

Adding Student Beds

UOL posted a 58 percent year-on-year rise in attributable profit to S$205.5 million for the first half of 2025, crediting strong performance from property development and investments and other gains from the disposal of Parkroyal Yangon in Myanmar.

Overall revenue rose 22 percent to S$1.55 billion as property development revenue climbed 40 percent to S$731.7 million on higher progressive revenue recognition from Pinetree Hill, Watten House and Meyer Blue in Singapore

In August, UOL agreed to acquire a student housing complex in southern England for £43.5 million ($59 million), becoming the latest Singaporean builder to bet on the education-related living segment in Britain.

The group is buying Varley Park, a complex of student residential halls comprising 771 operational beds across 22 blocks, from the University of Brighton as UOL’s first-ever purpose-built student accommodation asset, with the deal due to be completed in the third quarter of this year.