Farrer Court: CapitaLand-led group lands $2b property loan
Biggest ever loan syndicated in S’pore will be applied towards
Farrer Court project
The largest syndicated residential property development loan ever arranged
in Singapore - a huge $1.996 billion - has been issued to the CapitaLand-led
consortium that clinched Farrer Court.
The five-year facilities have been fully underwritten by DBS Bank, UOB
Asia, Standard Chartered Bank, OCBC and Royal Bank of Scotland.
The proceeds will be used to refinance the acquisition cost of the site
and to partly finance the development and construction of a new condo on
it.
CapitaLand has a 35 per cent stake in Morganite Pte Ltd, a joint-venture
vehicle it set up with Hotel Properties Ltd (HPL), Morgan Stanley Real
Estate Special Situations Funds III and Wachovia Development Corporation
to acquire Farrer Court for $1.3388 billion - the biggest-ever collective
sale in Singapore.
HPL and Morgan Stanley each own 22.5 per cent of Morganite, while Wachovia
holds the remaining 20 per cent.
Farrer Court’s acquisition was completed on March 10. The consortium plans
to build a 36-storey condo designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winner
Zaha Hadid.
The 99-year leasehold project, with about 1,500 units, is expected to be
launched next year.
The facility agreement for nearly $2 billion comprises a secured term loan
for the land, a revolving credit facility that will be progressively drawn
down for the project’s construction and bank guarantees.
Stanchart managing director (syndications-origination) Harrison Ong said
that the facility agreement has a five-year tenure. When asked about
interest rate, he would only say: “It is reasonable, given the strength of
the sponsors, the size of the facility and the location of the project.”
The facilities will be secured by, among other things, a mortgage over the
Farrer Court site and a debenture over the assets of Morganite.
In addition, the sponsors - the four shareholders of Morganite - will
provide certain project and facility undertakings.
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