Orchard Area Tower Put Up for Sale After Sin Capital’s $442M Bond Flop

Eight months after Sin Capital Group unloaded its Robinson Road headquarters, a mixed-use building near swanky Orchard Road formerly owned by the Singapore private equity firm has been put up for sale at an indicative price of S$600 million ($442 million).

Sin Capital, currently mired in a dispute over the sale of its Fullerton Healthcare unit, had developed the 18-storey development at 28 and 30 Bideford Road in Singapore’s prime shopping district, with the project’s 168 serviced apartments under the Orchard Hills Residences banner and 54,512 square feet (5,065 square metres) of retail, office and medical space now ready for fresh ownership after bonds backed by the project were not repaid last year.

A joint tender for the newly completed building, scheduled to close on 15 February 2022, was announced last week by brokers Knight Frank and Colliers. A source confirmed to Mingtiandi that the seller of the property is SC Aetas, a former subsidiary of Sin Capital, which is understood to be under new ownership.

“This is a rare and attractive investment proposition for investors looking for a brand-new freehold trophy asset located in prime District 9,” said Daniel Ding, head of capital markets at Knight Frank Singapore. “The opportunity may be suitable for hospitality operators who seek a flagship hospitality asset, or investors looking to acquire a generational asset.”

Posh Surroundings

Formerly the Thong Sia Building, now known as 30 Bideford Road, the property has a site area of 21,602 square feet and received its temporary occupation permit in early 2020. The site is zoned commercial and residential with a gross plot ratio of 4.9.

Designed by Japanese architectural firm Nikken Sekkei, the development sits 600 metres away from Somerset MRT station on the North-South Line and close to other high-end residences, hotels, offices and malls, including The Paragon, Ngee Ann City and Mandarin Gallery.

“Subject to the termination of existing leases at the property, the property will be sold with vacant possession on an ‘as is, where is’ basis, offering investors different options to maximise its potential,” said Tang Wei Leng, managing director of Colliers Singapore.

Sin Capital bought the building in 2015 for S$380 million in what was then Singapore’s biggest-ever mixed-use collective sale. The property at the time comprised seven levels of commercial space and a 19-level residential tower of 37 apartments.

Fullerton Feud

Led by local entrepreneur David Sin, Sin Capital operates out of a 12-storey tower at 108 Robinson Road, formerly known as the Finexis Building, which the private equity firm sold to US-based PGIM Real Estate for S$143 million ($107.6 million) around April of this year.

Sin Capital has also been seeking a buyer for Fullerton Health, a medical services provider that the firm majority-owns. After an aborted attempt to list on the Singapore Exchange six years ago, Fullerton Health is now the subject of a power struggle between David Sin and Fullerton’s minority shareholders, physicians Michael Tan and Daniel Chan, who claim veto rights over a pending offer by US private equity shop Platinum Equity to buy the company.

With Fullerton in poor health and Sin Capital paring back its property portfolio, local property players have rushed in to fill the void.

Boustead Swoops

In August, a consortium led by SGX-listed Boustead Projects paid S$117 million to acquire S$110 million in overdue mezzanine notes issued by SC Aetas and secured by the 30 Bideford Road property. Just a month later, Boustead announced that SC Aetas had failed to resume paying principal and interest on the notes and the consortium had taken ownership of the company’s share capital.

A Boustead representative told Shenton Wire that while the consortium now holds 100 percent of the company’s capital, any acquisition of the 30 Bideford Road property would have to proceed in accordance with an auction or bilateral sale process.

Whoever emerges as the new owner may be cheered by a reinvigorated residential market after new private home sales in the Lion City shot up 70 percent from October to 1,547 units in November, compelling the government to enact cooling measures.

“Singapore’s property market continues to attract investors internationally and domestically, and we are excited to engage with investors in this perfectly timed launch to ride on the recovery of the hospitality market, as international borders start to reopen due to the rising vaccination rates globally,” Colliers’ Tang said.

Pawara Laothamatas provided research for this story.

Note: An earlier version of this story indicated that Sin Capital was marketing the building. The article has been updated to show that Sin Capital no longer controls the vendor.