The first land sold in Singapore’s Marina Bay in nine years fetched a record price for a government land sale, with a Malaysian-led group bidding S$2.6 billion (US$1.9 billion).
The price is equivalent to S$18,180 per square meter of gross floor area, topping the S$15,166 per square meter paid in 2007 for the Asia Square Tower 1 site, CBRE Group Inc said.
“The top bid is a very bullish call on the Singapore office market,” Singapore-based Cushman & Wakefield Inc director of research Christine Li (李敏雯) said. “All the bids are higher than the market expectations of between S$1.3 billion and S$1.8 billion, which is a reflection of the steady restoration of investors’ confidence in the office market.”
The winning bid came from Wealthy Link Pte, the Singaporean Urban Redevelopment Authority said in a statement.
Wealthy Link is owned by IOI Properties Group Bhd, part of a Malaysian conglomerate with interests in palm oil and property development, Cushman said.
The tender follows a slew of commercial property deals in the city.
The plot sits next to Asia Square, which Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund in June agreed to buy from BlackRock Inc for S$3.4 billion in Singapore’s biggest office transaction.
CapitaLand Commercial Trust, Singapore’s largest office real-estate investment trust, in May agreed to buy a 60 percent stake in CapitaGreen in the central business district for S$393 million, and MYP Ltd, which operates an investment holding company, offered S$560 million for the Straits Trading Building.
The top bid was 34 percent higher than the lowest bid, submitted by a consortium led by Overseas Union Enterprise Ltd. The price was probably buoyed by the stronger-than-expected preleasing commitment rates for new office developments, such as Guoco Tower and Marina One, Cushman said.
The Central Boulevard development is scheduled to be completed by 2021. That would benefit IOI Properties, as there will be a dearth of new office openings from 2019 to 2021 — after a flood of supply through 2018.
An unidentified buyer committed to bid the reserve price of S$1.54 billion, or S$10,872 per square meter of gross floor area, the authority said on Aug. 30.
The site can be developed primarily for office use, with a smaller area reserved for residential housing, a hotel or serviced apartments.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS