HPL's embattled billionaire Ong Beng Seng. — Reuters
SINGAPORE: The property firm of embattled billionaire Ong Beng Seng is looking to reduce its stakes in two marquee assets along Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping strip, according to people familiar with the matter.
Hotel Properties Ltd or HPL is in talks to sell majority stakes in the Forum shopping mall, as well as the voco Orchard hotel, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.
The firm is seeking a deal that would value the two adjacent assets for at least S$2bil (US$1.6bil), they said.
A spokesperson for Singapore-listed Hotel Properties declined to comment. The firm has interests in more than 40 hotels across the globe, including the Four Seasons in Singapore, as well as resorts in the Maldives.
Ong, 79, has been in the spotlight in the last couple of years after being implicated in a scandal that led to the imprisonment of a senior politician in Singapore.
Ong has indicated he plans to plead guilty on Aug 4 after being charged last year for abetting former Transport Minister S. Iswaran over two flights and a night’s stay at the Four Seasons in Doha.
It’s unclear whether the case has any relation to the firm’s planned asset sales.
Hotel Properties won provisional permission from authorities in August 2023 to redevelop the two sites, along with its company headquarters, HPL House.
That was part of a government plan to rejuvenate the luxury Orchard Road shopping district by allowing developers to seek more space or change of use for older buildings.
The company intends to keep its ownership of HPL House under the potential sale, the people said.
It said earlier this year in its annual report that redevelopment plans are “being refined for submission to the relevant authorities”.
In April, Ong relinquished his decades-long tenure as managing director of Hotel Properties.
Two long-time executives replaced him, after he cited a desire to devote more time to his medical issues. But he continues to provide “strategic oversight and direction” to the firm.
Together with his wife Christina, the tycoon controls Hotel Properties with a roughly 60% stake. The next largest shareholder is Hong Kong billionaire Peter Woo.
The Forum mall is valued at about S$990mil, group executive director Christopher Lim said at the company’s annual meeting in April.
That estimate doesn’t account for the redevelopment. He declined to comment on the value of the voco, formerly the Hilton Singapore, saying the company didn’t have a valuation for it.
Hotel Properties is set to gain full ownership in August of the Concorde, an S$821mil shopping mall and hotel complex on Orchard Road, after buying out minority stakes it didn’t own.
The company’s stock has soared 46% this year, almost four times the gain in Singapore’s Straits Times Index. — Bloomberg
