Krishnan Sells OUE Stake To Lippo For $957m
The tenuous alliance between Indonesia’s Riady family and Malaysian tycoon Ananda Krishnan in Overseas Union Enterprise (OUE) has come to an end – the Riadys’ Lippo Group paid some $957m to acquire all of Krishnan’s stake in the mainboard-listed property group yesterday, raising its total shareholding to 88.52% from 64.67%. OUE’s free float after the deal will only slightly exceed 10%, putting it at risk of delisting. Nevertheless, Lippo said that it intends to keep the firm listed.

According to The Business Times, Lippo paid $11 per share for the additional interest. The price represents a premium of 21.7% to OUE’s last closing price of $9.04 last Friday. After trading in OUE resumed later in the afternoon, the counter shot up and closed at $11.98, up 32.5% from Friday. OUE’s board also underwent a reshuffle to reflect the ownership changes. Amongst them, Lippo president Stephen Riady became executive chairman of the company, a step up from his original role as executive director.

Lippo, meanwhile, expressed confidence in the growth potential of Singapore’s property market, and said that the deal allowed it to strengthen its asset base here. Riady said, ‘OUE will continue to focus on its core business in hospitality, as well as to strengthen its position in the premier retail and commercial space.’

Upmarket Private Homes Rises To $1.78m Per Unit During Last Two Months
A study by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) shows that the average transaction value of private homes sold in the primary market in the first 2 months of the year rose to $1.78m per unit, as developers released more upmarket projects. This is 37% higher than the $1.3m average price of homes sold by developers for the whole of last year. But the figure for January and February 2010 is still shy of the $1.97m average price in the bull year of 2007.

CBRE executive director Li Hiaw Ho reckons it is likely that the average dollar value of primary market transactions for the whole of this year will generally be above last year’s figure as more high-end projects are slated for launch this year. However, a lot will depend on how rentals fare for large units, Knight Frank chairman Tan Tiong Cheng warns.

Li offers another reason that the average value of homes sold by developers this year is likely to surpass last year’s figure – more 99-year leasehold projects on recently sold Government Land Sale sites will be launched at higher prices because of their higher land costs and location attributes such as proximity to MRT stations.

Lian Beng Bags $144m Condo Contract
Construction company, Lian Beng Group, has won a $144m building contract for a condominium development at Dakota Crescent. The design-and-build contract was awarded by UOL Development (Dakota) and works are due to commence next month and expected to be completed in March 2013. This new contract raised Lian Beng’s order book to about $740m.