The 17-storey TripleOne Somerset located near Somerset MRT station has been acquired by a consortium led by Perennial Real Estate Holdings for S$970 million, revealed media reports.
Brokered by Jones Lang LaSalle and CBRE, the sale is S$10 million lower than the S$980 million that Perennial, headed by Pua Seck Guan (pictured), had earlier offered when it did due diligence to acquire the asset under a letter of intent granted by the owner of the building, which is a fund managed by Pacific Star.
However, Perennial aborted the proposed deal after the fund increased the asking price to S$1 billion.
Lend Lease is understood to have been approached and did due diligence on the property. But no deal materialised bringing Perennial back into the picture.
The S$970 million purchase price works out to around S$1,714 psf based on its net lettable area (NLA) of about 566,000 sq ft – which includes 60,000 sq ft of retail space with offices accounting for the rest.
Formerly the Singapore Power Building, the site has a remaining lease term of around 61 years. It also features 403 basement carpark lots.
The industry chatter is that China interests are likely to take part in the consortium. In fact, it would not be surprising to see some of Perennial’s familiar partners like Ron Sim, founder of OSIM International and George Quek’s Bread Talk joining forces with the company.
Meanwhile, Pua is reported to be considering further asset enhancement works for the building, including converting more office space into higher-yielding retail space.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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