Speaking at OCBC’s 88th annual general meeting on April 17, Lee says the buildings are important to the organisation, and they also have historical value; OCBC Centre at 65 Chulia Street was the late architect I. M. Pei’s first big project in Singapore. Standing at 197.7m, it was Southeast Asia’s tallest skyscraper when it was completed in 1976.
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) chairman Andrew Lee has rejected a suggestion carried in The Business Times last month that the bank should sell its Chulia Street headquarters to “rejuvenate” the central business district.
Responding to a shareholder’s question about the opinion article, which recommended that the bank sell its trio of buildings “for a handsome profit”, Lee says: “Categorically, we are not picking up the suggestion.”
