GSH Plaza sold for $725 mil to Chinese billionaire
By Michael Lim
GSH Plaza has 259 strata office units located on Levels 3 to 28, and 21 strata retail shops on its first two floors
The newly refurbished GSH Plaza office tower at Raffles Place financial district has been sold to Fullshare Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed investment holding company controlled by mainland Chinese billionaire Ji Changqun, whose company is engaged in property development, building, investment and healthcare services.
Fullshare paid $750 million for Plaza Ventures, the holding company that owns GSH Plaza. The deal values the building at $2,900 psf.
The seller of Plaza Ventures is a consortium led by Singapore-listed GSH Corp (with a 51% stake) that is controlled by Singaporean businessman Sam Goi, Vibrant DB2 (35%) and Goi’s private investment vehicle, TYJ Group (14%).
Plaza Ventures purchased the 28-storey building, formerly known as Equity Plaza, in 2014 from Keppel Land and Alpha Investment Partners for $550 million, which translates to $2,181 psf based on a net lettable area of 252,000 sq ft.
The consortium then spent another $100 million refurbishing the building and turning it into a strata-titled development with 259 office units on levels 3 to 28, and 21 strata retail shops on the first two floors. The building, renamed GSH Plaza, is expected to obtain its Temporary Occupation Permit in the next two months. It has 73 years left on its original 99-year lease.
But GSH Corp is not exiting the tower completely as it had acquired all nine strata units with a total floor area of 9,710 sq ft on the 28th floor or penthouse level of GSH Plaza for $31 million ($3,192 psf) last November. It intends to move into the top floor of the tower and use it as GSH’s corporate headquarters in 2Q2017.
Fullshare has indicated that it will also be taking up office space within GSH Plaza, upon completion of the purchase.
Meanwhile, DB2 has said it will buy all the 21 strata retail units at GSH Plaza for $75.6 million. Based on the strata retail space of 12,260 sq ft, that translates to $6,166 psf.
Since GSH Plaza was launched for sale in April 2015, about 50 strata office units have been sold, according to caveats lodged with URA Realis. The average price for such units sold in 2016 was $3,204 psf, according to Christine Li, director of research at Cushman & Wakefield. She estimates that the price of $2,900 psf paid by Fullshare translates to a bulk discount of 9.5%.
Li also notes that the price for the bulk purchase at GSH Plaza is 11.5% higher than the $2,600 psf paid by One Tree Partners, a private-equity fund management firm founded by Tan Shern Liang and Roy Tan, for the bulk purchase of units in Prudential Tower, located just across the road.
One Tree Partners paid Epic Land $206.2 million for the 17 strata office units with a total area of 79,000 sq ft last month. Epic Land is a consortium comprising listed companies Lian Beng Group (with a 32% stake), KSH Holdings (28%), KOP Group (25%) and Centurion Global ($15%).
Even after the sale of the 17 strata office units at Prudential Tower to One Tree Partners, Epic Land continues to own 60,000 sq ft of office space in the building. The consortium had purchased 230,700 sq ft of strata office space on levels one, and 10 to 29 (excluding part of Level 16) within the 30-storey Prudential Tower for $512 million from Keppel REIT in 2014. This translates to $2,316 psf, based on the strata area. Prudential Tower has another 78 years remaining on its 99-year lease.
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