The Straits Times has reported an investment arm of NTUC is leading a bidding battle to buy Jurong Point mall.
Mercatus Co-operative, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTUC which owns and manages suburban shopping centres, has lodged a bid of about S2.2 billion. It described Mercatus as the “frontrunner” to acquire the asset.
The centre was publicly placed on the market last October with a deadline of November 18 for expressions of interest.
With a commercial net lettable area of about 658,000 sqft, the suburban centre is being offered for sale by an equal JV between Guthrie GTS and Lee Kim Tah Holdings.
Guthrie and Lee Kim Tah are divesting a total net lettable area of 702,000 sqft, which includes 44,000 sqft being used under the government’s Community/Sports Facilities Scheme (CSFS) by NTUC First Campus Co-Operative’s My First Skool and voluntary welfare organisations.
There is a further 59,000-odd sqft under three strata retail units divested by Lee Kim Tah and Guthrie about two decades ago to Golden Village, NTUC FairPrice and POSB.
Guthrie and Lee Kim Tah are offering their 702,000 sqft in the mall through the sale of shares in companies that own the space.
“The two partners have owned the property for many years and want to look at pursuing new interests and opportunities,” says Array Realty director Michael Leong. Lee Kim Tah was delisted early last year and Guthrie in November 2013.
Rare occurrence
“Rarely do stabilised assets of this scale become available,” says JLL regional director of Singapore capital markets Anthony Barr. He expects Jurong Point to appeal to institutional investors.
“There have been no comparable sales of a suburban retail property of this size on the open market for more than a decade in Singapore’s tightly held retail sector,” he says. “Other large sales have been either related-party transactions involving listed REITs or sales of partial interests.”
Jurong Point is seamlessly linked to the Boon Lay MRT Station and Bus Interchange. It draws an average monthly visitorship of six million people and there are 150,000 households within a 5km radius.
Major tenants for the space at Jurong Point owned by Guthrie and Lee Kim Tah include Courts, FairPrice Xtra, Harvey Norman, Kiddy Palace and Uniqlo. There are also three food courts.
