Tulip Garden en bloc may be called off

April 8, 2008
Tulip Garden en bloc may be called off
Buyer Bravo will 'accept costly missed opportunity' if it's not
granted payment extensions
By KALPANA RASHIWALA

(SINGAPORE) The owners of Tulip Garden met over the weekend and BT
understands that most of them have taken the view to rescind the $516
million collective sale to an associate company of Bravo Building
Construction - if the second 5 per cent instalment due to them is not
paid by the deadline of midnight yesterday.

BT understands the owners could not accede to the Bravo unit's
request for another extension to pay up the second 5 per cent
instalment which was to have been paid yesterday, to June 7, as well
as to extend the completion date of the transaction, which is when it
would have to pay up the remaining 90 per cent of the purchase price,
from May 28 to Aug 7.

However, Tulip Garden's owners, through their lawyers, are understood
to have informed Bravo yesterday that the payment deadline will not
be extended and that they reserve their rights to rescind the sale.

A Bravo spokeswoman said yesterday the consortium buying Tulip Garden
is seeking an 'unconditional extension of time' for making the two
payments, that is, it is not prepared to make any further payment to
the sellers in exchange for the extensions, until June 7.

If the sale is rescinded, Tulip Garden owners will keep the $25.8
million or 5 per cent of the purchase price they had been paid so
far, BT understands.

'If these extensions are not obtained, the consortium will accept
this costly missed opportunity to develop a stunning 350-unit condo
with unmatched features in a prominent Holland Road corner,' Bravo
said in a statement.

Bravo has a minority stake in the consortium buying Tulip Garden. The
en bloc sale of Tulip Garden was approved by Strata Titles Board in
February.

In its statement, Bravo said that it and its majority consortium
partners for the purchase of Tulip Garden intend to complete the
purchase. Bravo did not identify the consortium partners. 'Since
December 2007, major foreign institutional investors and a few local
investors have expressed strong interest to form the consortium. The
current turmoil in financial and stock markets matched with sporadic
bad news have caused unforeseen delays in securing ultimate approvals
to commit funds,' Bravo said in its statement.

Bravo also indicated that approval for Tulip Garden's sale from
Strata Titles Board in February came earlier than
anticipated. 'Coupled with the consortium's strategic decision to
significantly increase equity to balance the current cautious lending
by banks, the current deadlines for next payments have become too
constricted and no longer practical,' it added.

BT understands that Tulip Garden owners declined to further extend
the completion date of the sale of Tulip Garden as the STB had
already given its order for the sale, binding all owners to a sale,
and the sales committee does not have the powers to vary the
completion date of the sale beyond the originally agreed May 28. The
date was based on three months from receiving the STB order for sale,
as stipulated in the sale and purchase agreement for Tulip Garden
inked last year.

Assuming Tulip Garden's sale is rescinded, it may be a while before
the prime District 10 site is back on the en bloc bandwagon. If
owners wish to do a fresh en bloc sale, they would have to do it
under revised collective sales rules that took effect in October last
year and which are more stringent.

The $516 million deal for the property worked out to a unit land
price of $1,018 psf per plot ratio. No development charge is payable.

Last month, the $162.8 million collective sale of Makeway View in the
Newton area to another associate of Bravo was rescinded. BT reported
that one per cent of purchase price paid by Bravo so far was
forfeited.

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