Melaka's Harbour City revival with entry of Singapore's Tayrona Capital

Hatten Land Ltd, which listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange, had on Tuesday signed an agreement with Tayrona Capital relating to the Harbour City project in a US$323mil transaction.

KUALA LUMPUR: Work on Melaka's Harbour City, which was recenty halted due to a legal dispute, is expected to be revived with the entry of Singapore-based Tayrona Capital Pte Ltd taking up a near entire stake in the company which undertook the project

Hatten Land Ltd, which listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange, had on Tuesday signed an agreement with Tayrona Capital relating to the Harbour City project in a US$323mil transaction. The development is undertaken by Hatten Land's unit Gold Mart Sdn Bhd.

Tayrona Capital's core business is hospitality and investment and it will acquire and complete Harbour City as an addition to its Sagana Hotels & Resorts network of 32 hotels/resorts worldwide.

Under the agreement, Tayrona Capital will invest US$23mil for a 99% stake in Gold Mart, which is the developer of Harbour City.

Harbour City is an integrated development which comprises a retail mall, luxury hotel and an outdoor-indoor theme park. The stage of completion of the project is estimated at approximately 70%.

Hatten Land said construction of the project had been halted due to a legal dispute with the main contractor of the project.

“Tayrona Capital and Wealth Express Holdings Group Ltd (WEH) have agreed to work with the Hatten Land to work out a settlement solution with the main-contractor. A settlement with the main-contractor would allow the project to resume construction towards completion. The company believes that this will help retain market confidence in the track record of the company, ” it said.

The agreement also provides that Tayrona Capital will pay US$240mil to WEH for works and services to be provided by WEH to Tayrona Capital including, among other things, the completion of the development of the project and marketing and management of the project.

Hatten Land said as the concept originator and project developer of Harbour City, it will assign various intellectual property such as project design and concept, domain names, internet site and marketing materials to Tayrona Capital for a consideration of US$60mil.

As at March 31, Hatten Land had net assets and net current assets of RM370mil and RM307mil respectively. It has about RM1.3bil of unsold completed properties.

“The company will be convening an EGM to seek shareholders’ approval for the proposed transaction, ” it said.

Based on Gold Mart’s audited financial statement for the financial year ended June 30,2019, it reported a net asset value of RM169.9mil and profit after tax of RM108.1mil.

Based on Gold Mart’s unaudited financial statement for the financial period of nine-months ending March 31,

2020, it reported a net asset value of RM184.9mil and profit after tax of RM16.5mil.

Tayrona Capital's issued and paid up capital is S$2mil. Its shareholders are Jaime Alfonso Ordonez Arturo with a stake of 85% and Adhara Pte. Ltd. with a stake of 15%. Tayrona Capital’s directors are Jaime Alfonso Ordonez Arturo and De Vera Arjane.

WEH was incorporated under the laws of the British Virgin Islands on Sept 24,2018. Its principal business activity is investment holding.

WEH’s sole shareholder and sole director is William Chan.