Acquisition Of Parkview Square Office Bldg In Bugis Scrapped

SINGAPORE – Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA), which had carried out an exclusive due diligence to potentially purchase the Parkview Square office tower in Bugis for roughly S$900 million, has decided not pursue the acquisition, according to a report from The Business Times that was updated on Thursday afternoon (25 August, SGT).

Based on market chatter, BPEA had done due diligence for around two to three months for the 24-storey art deco style office building. However, the would-be buyer is said to have discovered some technical problems that may have led to a price disparity between the would-be buyer and the seller. In turn, this has resulted in a deadlock in negotiations between BPEA and Chyau Fwu Development, the owner of Parkview Square.

For Parkview Square, the selling price of S$900 million translates to almost S$2,700 psf based on the commercial property’s net leasable area (NLA) of 336,000 sq ft. The asset stands on a site with a remaining leasehold tenure of 74 years and its development potential has already been maximised.

Interestingly, the office tower is often called by locals as the “Batman Building” as it looks like the skyscrapers in the fictional Gotham City, which superhero Batman protects from criminals.

Situated near Bugis MRT station, the commercial property was developed on a site purchased during a government tender in 1997 by the late Hwang Chou-Shiuan, who established a business empire in Taiwan under the Chyau Fwu brand before relocating to Hong Kong in the late 1970s to set up the Parkview Group.