Singapore Swissotel Merchant Court Hotel up for sale

Singapore Swissotel Merchant Court Hotel up for sale

Clarke Quay hotel on the market for $330m-$380m

By KALPANA RASHIWALA

(SINGAPORE) After a holding period of barely two years, a fund managed by LaSalle Investment Management which bought Swissotel Merchant Court in the Clarke Quay area is putting the 476-room property up for sale.

The hotel, which stands on a site with a remaining lease of about 85 years, is being sold subject to a long-term management contract with Swissotel, part of Fairmont Raffles Hotels International.

The indicative price is understood to be in the $700,000 to $800,000 per room range, translating to an absolute quantum of around $330 million to $380 million.

The LaSalle Investment Management fund that currently owns the property bought it in late 2006 for about $250-300 million, it is understood.

The hotel, which stands on a site with a remaining lease of about 85 years, is being sold subject to a long-term management contract with Swissotel, part of Fairmont Raffles Hotels International.

Despite the softer visitor arrivals into Singapore lately, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, the sole marketing agent for the property, is confident that investors will find the property appealing given that Asia’s hotel investment market is tightly held. ‘Long-term investors don’t take a weekly or monthly perspective, and the overall infrastructure being invested in Singapore gives them comfort on the long-term growth prospects here,’ says Mike Batchelor, managing director, investment sales (Asia) at JLL Hotels.

The hotel will be marketed through an international tender that will close on Oct 3.

‘Investor interest for the property is expected to be strong. We anticipate the property will attract interest from Europe and the Middle East as well as from the more traditional investment markets across North and South Asia,’ Mr Batchelor said.

In May last year, CDL Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust bought the nearby Novotel Clarke Quay in a deal that priced the 398-room hotel at $219.8 million or about $552,000 per room. Mr Batchelor argues that Swissotel Merchant Court’s average room size of 30 square metres is larger than Novotel Clarke Quay’s. Also, room rates are higher at Swissotel Merchant Court, which would allow for a higher pricing on the hotel. ‘Historically, hotels in Singapore have been transacted at net yields ranging from about 4 per cent to 5.5 per cent,’ he noted.

The LaSalle Investment Management fund reportedly bought Swissotel Merchant Court in 2006 from Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (owned by Kingdom Hotels International and Colony Capital), which had in turn acquired it as part of the entire hotel business of Raffles Holdings in 2005.

The hotel has three food-and-beverage outlets, conference facilities, an Amrita Spa complete with a fitness centre.

‘The incoming purchaser will also have the opportunity to further enhance the asset through the redevelopment of the prime riverfront space overlooking Clarke Quay,’ said JLL Hotels senior vice-president Tom Oakden.

‘The hotel’s ground floor space offers the ideal location for a new state-of-the-art indoor/out- door food-and-beverage facility, tying in well with plans to revitalise the riverfront precinct and new signature events such as The Singapore River Festival,’ he added.

Source : Business Times - 29 Aug 2008

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Singapore Ho Ching is world’s 8th most powerful woman

Singapore Ho Ching is world’s 8th most powerful woman

Temasek Holdings CEO also the only woman in Asia in the top 10 of Forbes’ ranking

By Michelle Tay

Ms Ho, credited with boosting Temasek’s investment portfolio, has been in Forbes’ top 10 list for two years.

TEMASEK Holdings’ chief executive Ho Ching is the only woman in Asia to feature in the top 10 of Forbes magazine’s fifth annual list of the world’s most powerful women.
The low-profile Ms Ho, who rarely gives media interviews, pipped several regional and global high-fliers to maintain a spot in the top 10, at No. 8 this year, down from No. 3 last year.

They include US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, No. 35; Myanmar’s Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, No. 38; Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, No. 41; and Mrs Laura Bush, wife of US President George W. Bush, No. 44.

Ms Ho, 54, wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, has headed the Singapore investment company since 2002 and is credited with boosting its investment portfolio by investing in Indian and Chinese telecom companies, for instance.

Forbes said that Ms Ho’s achievements in the past year included ‘moving more of the city-state’s money abroad’, such as Temasek’s move to take a 15 per cent stake in US financial giant Merrill Lynch for US$5 billion (S$7 billion) in December.

The Forbes top 100 list measures power as a composite of public profile based on press mentions and financial heft.

Temasek’s assets rose 13 per cent to $185 billion in the year ended March 31. Last month, it pumped an additional US$900 million into Merrill Lynch.

Ms Ho’s drop from the No. 3 spot last year to No. 8 this year appears in part to be the result of the spike in interest last year over Temasek’s take-over of Shin Corp, one of Thailand’s biggest telecom firms. That sparked a wave of protests which eventually led to the overthrow of then Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Said Forbes: ‘Her moving down is more a factor of other women attaining greater power and pushing her farther down. That said, being on this global list is a celebration of her achievements and certainly not a statement that her power is diminished.’

Ms Ho’s meteoric rise to No. 3 last year - she was 36th in 2006 - also came after Temasek’s portfolio had crossed the $100 billion mark for the first time.

Last year, she came in just behind German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who remains in top spot this year, and China’s Vice-Premier Wu Yi, who has dropped off the list after retiring earlier this year.

This year’s list comprises 23 who shape governments around the world, 54 business executives, and others who are high-profile media personalities and leaders of non-profit organisations.

Ms Sheila Bair, head of Federal Deposit Insurance, the embattled US bank-deposit insurer, debuts in second place as she tries to stave off financial panic amid a worldwide credit crisis.

PepsiCo’s chairman and chief executive Indra Nooyi, who was born in India, but is now a United States citizen, is No. 3.

US senator Hillary Rodham Clinton garnered the most media attention at No. 28, while media maven and global philanthropist Oprah Winfrey is No. 36.

The women on this list control US$26 trillion worldwide, said Forbes.

Source : Straits Times - 29 Aug 2008

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Anwar sworn in, then leads walkout -KUALA LUMPUR

Anwar sworn in, then leads walkout -KUALA LUMPUR

By Hazlin Hassan, Malaysia Correspondent

Mr Anwar being sworn in as a new MP in Parliament yesterday.

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim fired his first salvo in Parliament yesterday just hours after he was sworn in as an MP by leading his colleagues on the opposition bench in a walkout.
They were protesting against a proposed Bill that makes it mandatory for criminal suspects to provide DNA samples.

The opposition maintains it is aimed at Mr Anwar, who has so far refused to provide the authorities with a sample in connection with a fresh sodomy case brought forth by the allegations of a former aide.

‘The government’s desire to push this Bill quickly proves they are power-crazy. They have not given MPs the time to scrutinise the Bill and exercise their responsibility,’ he told Parliament.

He later told reporters that the opposition had walked out after Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar refused to entertain their request to refer the Bill to a select committee.

Earlier Mr Anwar, dressed in a black traditional Malay suit and songkok, had taken the oath for new MPs and promptly took the corner seat reserved for the parliamentary opposition leader, which was vacated by his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, three weeks ago. He was cheered on by opposition MPs who pounded their desks loudly for their new leader.

His seat is directly opposite Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s in the 222-member Parliament.

Datuk Seri Abdullah, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and most Cabinet ministers were not present during the ceremony. State television’s live parliamentary coverage did not show the swearing-in ceremony, beginning only after a government minister rose to speak later during proceedings.

Mr Anwar decried the move to omit the ceremony, calling it a ‘nasty machination’ of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

He returned to Parliament after scoring a convincing win in Tuesday’s by-election in his bastion, the constituency of Permatang Pauh in Penang. He was MP for Permatang Pauh since 1982, losing that privilege after he was imprisoned in 2000 but regained the right to return to Parliament in April.

Source : Straits Times - 29 Aug 2008

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Mindy Yong

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