Billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, executive chairman of City Developments, speaks as Sherman Kwek, group ... [+]
Southeast Asian billionaires Kwek Leng Beng and Sukanto Tanoto are in talks to pursue potential real estate opportunities in the U.K.
“We can do deals together,” Kwek, executive chairman of Singapore-based property giant City Developments, said Wednesday at the company’s annual results briefing. “We can be in a joint venture.”
With a net worth of about $3.1 billion, Tanoto, 74, is the founder of Royal Golden Eagle, a global company with over 60,000 employees in the pulp and paper, palm oil and energy businesses. In recent years, RGE has been diversifying into property through its Pacific Eagle Real Estate unit.
Sukanto Tanoto, founder of Royal Golden Eagle, which has interests in pulp, paper, energy and real ... [+]
“Pacific Eagle Real Estate is committed to delivering exceptional experiences through properties that result in cleaner, greener, more liveable cities,” Richard Goh, executive director of Pacific Eagle Real Estate, said in an emailed statement. “We are always open to explore such opportunities, particularly with seasoned real estate developers.”
In 2022, the company bought the Tanglin Shopping Centre in Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping belt for S$868 million ($645 million) from strata title holders including City Developments. The following year it opened the 304-room Mondrian Duxton Singapore and took over the Wanda Reign on the Bund, a luxury hotel in Shanghai.
In partnership with China Resources Capital, Pacific Eagle is building the Pacific Eagle Center, a 21-story office tower in Beijing. It is also developing Prospect Park, a business park with 19 office blocks in the Chinese capital and a residential development in the city of Rizhao in China’s southeastern Shandong province. Outside of Asia, Pacific Eagle owns commercial properties in London and Munich.
Billionaires Kwek Leng Beng and Sukanto Tanoto are looking at opportunities in the U.K. real estate ... [+]
Without specifying investment targets, Kwek said he will help Tanoto identify opportunities in the U.K., where City Developments has amassed some £1 billion of commercial properties in recent years, including the historic waterfront landmark St. Katharine Docks in Central London. “We met each other some time ago,” Kwek said of Tanoto. “He has already forged a good relationship with me.”
U.K. properties account for 17% of CDL’s global portfolio, which was valued at S$33 billion as of December 2023. More than half of the assets are in Singapore, and the rest are in Australia, China, Japan and the U.S. “We are very optimistic about the future of the U.K. even after Brexit,” Sherman Kwek, eldest son of Kwek Leng Beng and group CEO of City Developments, said. “U.K. plays a very significant role and cannot be segregated aside or left out.”
The elder Kwek, 83, is also the executive chairman of Singapore’s Hong Leong Group, which was founded by his father in 1941. His billionaire cousin Quek Leng Chan runs a separate group in Malaysia called Hong Leong Co. (Malaysia) that has interests in finance, food and property. With a net worth of $11 billion that he shares with his family, Kwek was ranked No. 5 on the list of Singapore’s 50 Richest that was published last September.
