(Image: Wilkie Edge)
Keppel Capital is purchasing a commercial complex in Singapore’s Rochor district from a joint venture between local investors Lian Beng Group and Apricot Capital for around S$350 million ($257 million), according to sources who spoke with Mingtiandi this past week.
Working on behalf of a separate account investor, the asset management division of Keppel Corp has agreed to buy the office and retail elements of Wilkie Edge, a 12-storey complex combining office space, retail shops and serviced apartments near the Little India district, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The transaction had been reported earlier by the Business Times.
The deal, which was signed within the last two weeks and has yet to close, adds to a flurry of transactions by Keppel Capital this year after the fund manager purchased two school campuses in Sydney last month for A$198 million ($125 million), on behalf of its Keppel Education Asset Fund.
After trades of income earning properties in Singapore fell to just $600 million during the third quarter, according to MSCI, the Wilkie Edge deal is part of a nearly $900 million set of transactions which have been recently signed or are expected to close during this month, including Viva Land’s expected disposal of the Hotel Telegraph on Robinson Road and Gaw Capital Partners’ sale of Hotel G to a unit of CapitaLand Group.
Notching a 25% Mark-Up
At the agreed price the 154,528 square foot (14,356 square metre) property at the intersection of Wilkie Road and Selegie Road, is changing hands at the equivalent of S$2,265 per square foot of net lettable area.
Lian Beng chairman Ong Pang Aik
That price tag represents a 25 percent increase over the S$280 million (then $203 million) which Lian Beng and Apricot paid to acquire the asset from its previous owner, CapitaLand Commercial Trust (since merged into CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust), in 2017.
Sought for comment, a Keppel representative said “We are unable to comment on details of the transaction due to confidentiality clauses.”
The 2008-vintage complex houses the Citadines Mount Sophia Singapore, a 154-unit serviced residence managed by SGX-listed CapitaLand Ascott Trust, a two-level retail podium and six floors of offices. The building, which is within 10 minutes’ walk of the Dhoby Ghaut and Little India MRT stations is also home to one of two Kaplan education campuses in the city-state.
CBRE is understood to have brokered the Wilkie Edge deal. Representatives of Lian Beng and Apricot Capital all had not responded to inquiries from Mingtiandi by the time of publication.
Deal Surge
Located at the northern fringe of Singapore’s urban core, Wilkie Edge is three minutes walk west of Hotel G, which Gaw Capital is in talks to sell to CapitaLand’s Ascott unit at a price said to be at least S$230 million.
Closer to the city centre, Viva Land, a local firm linked to jailed Vietnamese tycoon Truong My Lan is in exclusive talks to sell the Hotel Telegraph on Robinson Road to a unit of local construction firm Sunray Woodcraft for at least S$170 million, Mingtiandi reported on Saturday.
Together the three transactions total around $965 million ($709 million), which already outstrips the value of major investment transactions closed in Singapore during the third quarter.
In September, local private equity firm TE Capital was said to be in due diligence to purchase the VisionCrest Commercial Building on Penang Road in Singapore for around S$460 million, with that deal potentially adding to the fourth quarter total, should it result in a transaction.
Familiar Partners
After exiting Wilkie Edge, Lian Beng Group and Apricot Capital, the family office of instant coffee king David Teo, still jointly own the Breadtalk headquarters near Paya Lebar which the two teamed up with local firm 32RE to purchase in 2021 for S$118 million.
Lian Beng and Apricot also co-own the Sembawang Shopping Centre in northern Singapore after forming a joint venture to buy that retail asset in 2018 for S$248 million. Together with SGX-listed Oxley Holdings and KSH Holding the two companies are also currently developing the 1,472 unit Riverfront Residences project in northeastern Singapore’s Hougang area.
Last month Apricot made a solo acquisition, agreeing to buy the Serene Centre in Bukit Timah from Chee Tat Holdings for S$105 million.
Formerly a listed company, Lian Beng was taken private in August in a S$340 million take-private deal led by chairman and controlling shareholder Ong Pang Aik and his family.
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