Bookmark & Share
K-REIT Asia announced an agreement with Keppel Land Limited’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Straits Property Investments Pte Ltd, to acquire an 87.5 percent interest in Ocean Properties Pte Limited for S$2.01 billion.
The agreed acquisition value includes five-year rental support of up to S$170 million.
Ocean Properties is the owner of Ocean Financial Centre, a 43-storey Grade A premium office tower with environmentally sustainable features located in Singapore’s central business district (CBD). The development comprises about 884,957 sq ft of net lettable area (NLA).
As of 15 September 2011, around 79.6 percent of the total office NLA had been leased to several corporations, including the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Drew & Napier LLC, BNP Paribas, Stamford Law Corporation, Verizon Communications and The Executive Centre.
“We remain confident of Singapore’s fundamentals as one of Asia’s key financial centres as well as the positive outlook for the Singapore office market in the short to medium term especially for Grade A office space,” said Ng Hsueh Ling, CEO of K-REIT Asia.
“The acquisition of Ocean Financial Centre, one of the best premium commercial buildings in Singapore’s business and financial district will enhance our portfolio significantly as well as improve our distribution per unit to our unitholders.”
Meanwhile, K-REIT Asia posted a 22 percent increase to 7.59 cents in annualised distribution per unit (DPU) for the nine months ended September 2011.
Distributable income grew 23.6 percent to S$77.2 million, mainly due to higher interest income, as well as a higher share of profits from One Raffles Quay Pte Ltd (ORQPL) and BFC Development Pte Ltd (BFCDPL).
In addition, K-REIT Asia’s net property income was S$43.9 million, mainly due to the divestment of Keppel and GE Towers in December 2010.
To contact the journalist, you may send your message to editor@propertyguru.com.sg