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CDL Hospitality Trusts yesterday posted fourth-quarter distributable income of $12.4 million - about 34 per cent above its forecast.

The distribution per unit to investors came in at 1.76 cents.

The strong showing comes on the back of a buoyant hospitality market, with rising tourist arrivals. The industry expects room rates to rise by at least 15 per cent this year.

The trust’s four hotel assets in Singapore, which include Orchard Hotel and Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, achieved an average occupancy rate of 88 per cent and an average daily rate of $166 in the fourth quarter. Revenue per available room rate was $146, nearly 17 per cent above its forecast.

It also has a hotel in New Zealand, acquired late last year.

Mr Vincent Yeo, chief executive of M&C Reit Management, said room rates at its Singapore hotels rose 20 to 25 per cent last year.

‘Barring unforeseen circumstances, there should be another healthy rate increase this year.’

It would convert existing space into additional hotel rooms at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. This would increase the hotel’s capacity by about 4 per cent.

Also, it is studying the possibility of enhancing the Orchard Hotel Shopping Arcade or use the area to extend the hotel.

Mr Yeo said the trust is looking for one or two more assets in Singapore as it works towards doubling its size within three years of listing.

Elsewhere, its target markets include Australia, Vietnam and China, to name a few.

The trust listed last July.

Source : Straits Times - 1 Feb 2007

Net demand surges more than 50% to 268.5ha of space, says landlord JTC

The amount of vacant land taken up by businesses to build factories and warehouses rose to a record high last year against the backdrop of a booming Singapore economy.

Net demand for prepared industrial land jumped 51 per cent to an unprecedented 268.5ha of space, said JTC Corp, Singapore’s largest industrial landlord, yesterday.

The bulk of this rise in demand came from companies in the logistics, chemicals and services sector, according to JTC’s year-end report.

These companies were particularly keen on specialised parks, such as petrochemical hub Jurong Island, which saw a 75 per cent increase in the net amount of land leased.

Electronics firms, however, reduced their industrial space take-ups amid a down cycle in the industry. They returned 27.1ha of land to JTC last year, making up more than half the total 49ha that was returned.

Last year also saw a dip in the take-up rate for JTC’s ready-built facilities, including factories and business parks. About 127,700 sq m of these facilities were leased out last year, down from a record high of 179,600 sq m in 2005.

The main reason for this drop was a plunge in demand for business parks. Only 22,800 sq m of business park space was taken up last year, down from 130,400 sq m in 2005.

However, this fall was due to the fact that there was a large spike in the demand for business parks in 2005 from A*Star taking up space at Biopolis, JTC said yesterday.

Apart from business parks, demand for all other categories of ready-built facilities grew strongly.

Flatted factories, standard factories, stack-up factories and technopreneur space all remained in hot demand, with more space taken up last year than the year before.

Occupancy rates also climbed for all ready-built factories, including business parks, to 87.8 per cent last year from 83.5 per cent previously.

Despite the higher take-up, rents and prices for most of JTC’s land and facilities stayed flat.

However, consultants expect the values of industrial properties to rise this year as demand continues to strengthen, outstripping new supply.

Net new demand for industrial property last year reached about one million sq m, the highest level since 2000, said property firm Colliers International. This was most likely boosted by company expansions and a spillover effect from the crunch in office space.

In comparison, net new supply only accounted for less than two-thirds of this demand, said Colliers’ director of research and consultancy, Ms Tay Huey Ying.

She noted that the islandwide occupancy rate of industrial space breached the 90 per cent mark last year, finally hitting ‘a level capable of spurring rental growth’.

Industrial rents and prices are therefore expected to rise by 5 to 8 per cent this year, said Ms Tay.

Source : Straits Times - 1 Feb 2007

Two new industrial sites have been put on the confirmed list of the Government Industrial Land Sales programme and buying interest is seen to be high.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry said yesterday that it would put two sites on the confirmed list and four sites on the reserve list of the programme for the first half of 2007.

The two on the confirmed list are at Tampines Street 92/Simei Avenue and Kaki Bukit Road 3. The reserve list sites are at Pioneer Road/Tuas Avenue 11, Sin Ming Lane, Yishun Avenue 6 (Parcel 1), and Commonwealth Drive/Commonwealth Lane.

Meanwhile, the most recent site to be awarded is at Woodlands Industrial Park E5, in December 2006. The 30-year leasehold site was sold for $5.12 million or $304.33 psm per plot ratio.

Savills Singapore director of Industrial Services, Dominic Peters, believes that the two new sites on the confirmed list will attract even higher bids.

He said that the sites were well-located and could fetch 10-15 per cent more than what was paid for the recent Woodlands site. ‘There is not much supply for new space in the East, and this site (Tampines) would suit supporting industries to the Changi Business Park.’

On the Kaki Bukit site, he said that the low plot ratio of 0.6 would be attractive to developers who wanted to build a single storey workshop space for servicing cars. Rents for such space could increase by 10 per cent, he added.

Source : Business Times - 31 Jan 2007

CITY Developments (CityDev) and Suntec Reit have settled their dispute over an aborted $788 million property deal.

In 2005, CityDev rejected Suntec Reit’s move to terminate the deal under which Suntec Reit was to have bought 11 properties from CityDev for $788 million.

Suntec Reit called off the deal on grounds that it could not obtain regulatory approvals in time to convene an extraordinary general meeting of unit-holders.

Yesterday, Suntec Reit trustee HSBC Institutional Trust Services (HSBCIT), Suntec Reit manager ARA Trust Management and CityDev and its subsidiaries entered into a settlement agreement under which HSBCIT will get a refund of $5 million, being the total of various deposits it made. CityDev will be paid all the interest earned on each deposit.

The payments are expected to be made to HSBCIT and CityDev by tomorrow.

The parties said that the terms of the settlement agreement constitute full and final settlement of the matter without admission of any liability by the parties.

Source : Business Times - 31 Jan 2007

The Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of a couple who had argued that a bank should compensate them for losses they suffered in a forced property sale. They had said its actions prevented them from obtaining funds to stave off the sale.

The High Court, in earlier dismissing the couple’s case, applied a legal principle that if someone suffered losses due to his own lack of funds, the wrongdoer, in this case the bank, cannot be held responsible.

But on appeal by the couple, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, delivering the decision of the three-judge appellate court yesterday, said that this legal principle, which has been abandoned in courts elsewhere, ‘has no place in modern jurisprudence’ and should no longer be used here.

The saga began in 2001, when the couple - businessman Ho Soo Fong and his wife Lim Siew Kim - and Mr Ho’s brother, went to Standard Chartered Bank to refinance two bungalows and a shophouse.

Stanchart granted them loan facilities and lodged caveats against the properties to prevent their sale. However, the trio later cancelled the facilities and asked for the caveats to be withdrawn but the bank refused, as cancellation fees were outstanding.

By then, a fourth property, a shophouse, had been force-sold by another bank, the Bank of East Asia.

The trio went to the High Court, which found that Stanchart was wrong in refusing to withdraw the caveats and ruled that the trio were entitled to damages.

But one of the claims - for losses suffered from the forced sale - was rejected by the assistant registrar who assessed the damages. The couple then appealed to the High Court, which dismissed their case.

With their now-successful appeal to Singapore’s highest court, the couple are seeking more than $1.3 million for the forced sale, said their lawyer Christopher Chong of Legal Solutions.

Source : Straits Times - 31 Jan 2007