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Tuan Sing forks out $349m for Robinson Point

Published on Jun 27, 2013

By Chia Yan Min


DEVELOPER Tuan Sing Holdings is buying a Central Business District commercial building, Robinson Point, for $348.9 million.

The company said the freehold 21-storey building, at 39, Robinson Road, would provide it with stable rental income.

The building, about 15 years old, has a net lettable area of about 135,720 sq ft and a gross floor area of about 169,250 sq ft.

Based on the net lettable area, the purchase price translates into $2,571 per sq ft (psf).

Colliers International conducted a valuation of the property, concluding it had an open market value of $350 million as at yesterday. Tuan Sing will buy the building mainly with bank borrowings, by buying a company which owns Robinson Point, called Robinson Point (Cayman).

Tuan Sing said the acquisition is in line with its "strategy of expanding its core property business and securing recurring income business". The asset is expected to generate a stable rental income stream.

Last July, Sun Venture bought Robinson Point from a real estate fund managed by US-based AEW, in a deal that valued the asset at $284 million or about $2,132 psf based on net lettable area.

Before that, office real estate investment trust CapitaCommercial Trust, partly owned by CapitaLand, sold Robinson Point to the private fund for $203.3 million in 2010.

The building is fully rented to third-party tenants, with durations of mainly three years.

Tuan Sing has been on the acquisition trail of late.

Earlier this month, the developer bought Gilstead Court in the exclusive Novena-Newton area for $150.2 million, or $1,292 per sq ft per plot ratio.

The site is 75,479 sq ft, with a plot ratio of 1.4.

Tuan Sing's wholly owned unit Dillenia Land was awarded the tender for the property in a collective sale.

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