CapitaLand Investment Takes Stake in Singapore Mall After Sale to Mainland Investor

CapitaLand Investment will take a minority stake in Singapore’s Clementi Mall after Chinese investor Elegant Group agreed to buy the asset in December for S$809 million ($624.6 million).

CapitaLand Investment is acquiring the unspecified interest in the community mall in the city-state’s western Clementi area as part of a deal that will also see the Temasek-controlled firm provide real estate advisory services for the 2011-built shopping centre, according to a LinkedIn post late last week. 

“This reflects CLI’s long-term ambition to deepen its foothold in high-quality retail assets and grow fee income through a capital-efficient, partnership-led approach,” SGX-listed CapitaLand Investment said of the transaction.

Elegant, the company led by mainland businessman Zhao Zhichao, picked up the Clementi Mall in a sale that ranked as Singapore’s largest private investment transaction of 2025, excluding related-party deals, but also raised eyebrows among Lion City lawmakers over anti-competitive concerns.

Clementi Double Act

Located at 3155 Commonwealth Avenue West in Clementi Town, the Clementi Mall has a direct connection to Clementi MRT station and bus interchange and is within a minute’s walk of Grantral Mall@Clementi, which Elegant acquired in 2016 as its first major property in the city.

The latest buy triggered questions in Parliament over two malls in close proximity being owned by the same company and the implications for consumer choice, as reported by the Business Times in January.

In a statement last week confirming the completion of its Clementi Mall acquisition and new partnership with CapitaLand Investment, Elegant said the collaboration with the state-backed firm would “further enhance our ability to deliver an elevated retail experience for customers”.

“Singapore remains a core market for us, and we are committed to deepening our presence and foothold here and across APAC, while continuing to contribute meaningfully to the community,” the company said in a LinkedIn post.

Acquisitive Outfit

Elegant Group has spent more than $1.8 billion acquiring properties in Singapore and Australia over the past decade, with Zhao said to shuttle between the city-state and mainland China multiple times each month and Elegant described in some media accounts as his family office.

The Clementi Mall is the fifth Singapore shopping centre added to the group’s portfolio, following the acquisition of the Kinex shopping centre in the Geylang area from UOL for S$375 million in a deal that closed at the end of October. In 2023, Elegant spent S$338 million to purchase the Changi City Point mall near Singapore’s international airport from Frasers Centrepoint Trust. 

The Clementi Mall had been part of the portfolio of Paragon REIT, the SGX-listed trust taken private last year by Cuscaden Peak, a 50:50 holding company of Temasek units Mapletree and CapitaLand.

The REIT’s other remaining assets absorbed by Cuscaden are the flagship Paragon mall on Orchard Road and a 50 percent stake in Australia’s Westfield Marion Shopping Centre, which hit the market last week.