Hotel Tycoon Ong Beng Seng, Temasek Units Win Bid For Singapore Press’ Properties

A consortium backed by Hotel Properties—controlled by billionaire Ong Beng Seng and wife Christina—and units of Singapore state-owned investment firm Temasek won the bidding for the real estate assets of media giant Singapore Press Holdings.

The S$3.9 billion ($2.9 billion) offer by Cuscaden Peak—which is owned 40% by Hotel Properties—was approved by 89% of shareholders at an online meeting on Tuesday, SPH said in a statement. Temasek’s CLA Real Estate Holdings and Mapletree Investments each hold 30% stakes in the consortium.

“This marks the final step in the two-step strategic review announced in March 2021,” SPH chairman Lee Boon Yang said in a statement. “The first step was to demerge the loss-making media business which was completed in December. The Cuscaden scheme is the outcome of a competitive process to provide shareholders an opportunity to realize their investment in SPH at a premium.”

Cuscaden Peak’s offer—which gave SPH shareholders the option of accepting an all-cash offer of S$2.36 per share or S$1.602 cash per share plus 0.782 SPH REIT shares with an indicative value of S$2.40 per share—trumped the rival bid made by Keppel Corp., the property and oil-rig giant also linked to Temasek.

The bidding war for SPH’s assets escalated last year after the publisher of the Straits Times undertook a restructuring that spun off the media company into a non-profit entity. Following shareholders’ approval, SPH said trading will be suspended on April 8 and the shares will be delisted from the Singapore Exchange on May 13.

Hotel Properties—owner of the Four Seasons Hotel in Singapore—has said its investment in SPH will help generate better returns longer term. After completing the acquisition of SPH on April 28, Cuscaden Peak maybe be obliged to undertake an offer for SPH REIT if the consortium ends up owning more than 30% of the listed property company, which holds assets including the group’s crown jewel Paragon, a shopping mall in Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping belt, and the Westfield Marion Shopping Centre in Adelaide, Australia.

With a net worth of $1.7 billion, Ong and wife Christina were ranked No. 25 on the list of Singapore’s 50 Richest that was published in August. He is the managing director of Hotel Properties, which has interests 38 hotels and resorts across 15 countries in Asia, Europe, South Africa and the U.S. Christina runs Como Hotels & Resorts, retail empire Club 21 and London-listed handbag maker Mulberry.