Quoteworthy: "Looks like we might be here for a little bit." –— Julianne Cona, in her Instagram caption. The 400m-long ultra-large container ship Ever Given, right in front of her, is wedged sideways across the Suez Canal. Cona, who posts as “fallenhearts17”, is second assistant engineer onboard Maersk Denver, which was sailing right behind the Ever Given.
Bulk purchase at Eden rumoured to be $300 mil
Word on the street is that all 20 units at Swire Properties’ luxury condo Eden at 2 Draycott Park have been sold to a single buyer. The buyer is believed to be a Chinese family. The purchase price is said to be $300 million, which translates to $4,800 psf, according to sources. The deal is said to be brokered by Sandra Yiap, associate division head of Huttons Asia, who was formerly with Savills Residential before the two entities were merged last September. Yiap declined to comment for this story as did Huttons Asia and Savills Singapore.
Completed in 2019, Eden was designed by multi-award-winning, architect Thomas Heatherwick of London-based Heatherwick Studio in collaboration with Swire Properties. Each of the 20 apartments occupy an entire floor spanning over 3,000 sq ft, with four en suite bedrooms. The residents will enjoy a vertical landscape of hanging gardens, designed as their own “lush, private garden-in-the-sky”.
One of the conditions required by the developer was that the apartments had to be so exclusive and private that “residents can walk freely around their apartment without worrying about their privacy”, according to a source.
“The development was designed as a work of art, with attention to detail,” says Ong Choon Fah, CEO of Edmund Tie. “Everything is bespoke — from the exteriors to the interiors.”
For the ultra-high-net-worth individual, $300 million purchase price “is not too much of an investment outlay — whether you’re buying for the residence of an extended family or with your friends, and it’s very exclusive,” adds Ong.
Eden is adjacent to The Tanglin Club and right opposite The American Club, in prime district 10. The Draycott Park, Draycott Drive and Ardmore Park enclave is also renowned as the “billionaires’ belt”. Nearby at Ardmore Park is Abelia, an 11-storey condominium owned by Singaporean tycoon and investor Peter Lim with his family, together with his wine and car collection.
Nearby is also Le Nouvel Ardmore, with just 43 exclusive units. The 13,573 sq ft duplex penthouse — the biggest penthouse there — was purchased by Alibaba co-founder Sun Tongyu, who paid $51 million ($3,757 psf) for it in 2015.
The units at Eden were said to be originally priced from $6,000 psf or $18 million apiece. Hence, the transacted price of $300 million or $4,800 psf translates to a bulk discount of about 20%. And if the buyer was a foreigner, there is 20% additional buyer’s stamp duty on top of the price tag.
Eden is a redevelopment of the former Hampton Court, which Swire Properties had purchased en bloc for $155 million at the end of December 2012. The price translated to a land rate of $2,526 psf per plot ratio (ppr), which was a record price then. “Over the long term, the Ardmore-Draycott area has proven to be a great location to park one’s wealth,” says Edmund Tie’s Ong. “We’re seeing a lot more family funds coming in from Hong Kong and China.”— Cecilia Chow
China considers creating state-backed company to oversee tech data
China’s government has proposed establishing a joint venture with local technology giants that would oversee the lucrative data they collect from hundreds of millions of consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.
The preliminary plan, which is being led by the People’s Bank of China, would mark a significant escalation in regulators’ attempts to tighten their grip over the country’s internet sector. It envisions the creation of a government-backed entity along with some of China’s biggest e-commerce and payments platforms, the people said.
The online firms would be initial shareholders in the joint venture, though top executives would need to be approved by the regulator, the people said. The central bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposal is among a slate of options being considered to crystallise Beijing’s goal of gaining greater control over the data amassed by online behemoths from Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings to up-and-comers like ByteDance and Meituan. Companies were encouraged this month to open up data in areas from e-commerce to social media to promote healthy development of the sharing and online economies in a report that outlined the Communist Party’s priorities.
US-listed Chinese stocks plummeted, with iQIYI falling nearly 20% and Tencent Music Entertainment Group down 27%, the biggest drop since listing in 2018. Vipshop Holdings slumped 21%, the most in more than 5 years.
During an earnings call on March 24, Tencent CEO Pony Ma said that its guiding principle is minimising platform access to user data. “Data is extremely complicated,” said Ma. “There’s a fine line between ensuring users’ privacy and opening up data to sharing.” — Bloomberg
Man charged for nickel investment scam involving at least $1 bil
A 33-year-old Singaporean, Ng Yu Zhi, has been charged for orchestrating a nickel investment scam with at least $1 billion in funds involved. The alleged offences took place between October 2017 and February this year.
Ng, director of Envy Asset Management (EAM) and Envy Global Trading (EGT), was granted bail of $1.5 million, with electronic tagging. The bail amount is the highest thus far since electronic monitoring was introduced.
EAM is alleged to have borrowed money from investors to purchase nickel from one Poseidon Nickel when in fact the company made no purchase of nickel. EGT, meanwhile, is alleged to have deceived investors to purchase a portion of receivables from its purported sale of nickel to BNP Paribas through forward contracts when there was no such sale.
Investors were promised returns averaging 15% for the three-month contracts. At the end of each three-month period, many investors rolled over their contracts and reinvested both their principal and returns.
Based on investigations thus far, at least $1 billion had been invested in EAM and EGT, purportedly for the purchase of nickel. Out of this amount, some $700 million was paid to investors, and $300 million was transferred to Ng’s personal account. The Commercial Affairs Department has seized around $100 million worth of assets from Ng and an estimated $200 million remains unaccounted for.
Prosecution’s view is that Ng has access to overseas assets and has family overseas. He has a child with a partner whom he gave high-value gifts. She has since returned to China.
In a statement, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) notes that firms that deal in or invest funds for qualified investors in physical assets, as what Ng purportedly did, are not required to be licensed by MAS.
“This approach is broadly similar to that taken in other major financial centres. MAS is nevertheless examining EAM’s and EGT’s investment documents and other available evidence to see if they have been engaging in capital markets products or in any activity that would have required the two firms to obtain a MAS licence,” MAS adds.
The case was also adjourned to May 17 and additional charges are expected on top of the four he is already slapped with. If convicted, Ng faces a mandatory jail term of up to 10 years. — The Edge Singapore
See: Nickel controversy underlines urgency of blockchain
