Billionaire Kwek Family's CDL Sells Stake In Singapore's South Beach To Malaysia's IOI Properties
The South Beach, located in the Singapore central business district, houses the JW Marriott Hotel ... More and an office block.
City Developments Ltd. (CDL)—controlled by billionaire Kwek Leng Beng and his family—has agreed to sell a majority stake in a mixed used office, hotel and residential complex in the Singapore central business district to its Malaysian partner, IOI Properties.
Under the deal, IOI Properties—controlled by controlled by Malaysian billionaire brothers Lee Yeow Chor and Lee Yeow Seng, whose family made their fortune from palm oil—will buy CDL's 50.1% stake in South Beach in a deal valuing the the property at S$2.75 billion ($2.1 billion), according to a joint statement from the partners.
Upon completion of the deal in the third quarter of this year, IOI Properties will fully own the commercial property, comprising the JW Marriott Hotel in a 45-story skyscraper, a 34-story office tower and retail space. The 190-unit South Beach Residences has been fully sold since September 2021.
'The acquisition of the 100% equity stake in this landmark development marks a significant strategic expansion for IOI Properties,' Lee Yeow Seng, group CEO of IOI Properties, said in the statement.
IOI Properties has been expanding its portfolio in Singapore. It recently opened the IOI Central Boulevard Towers in Marina Bay. Built at a cost of about S$4 billion (including the land cost), the complex comprises a seven-story podium, a 16-story tower and a 48-story skyscraper. Nearby, the company is developing yet another landmark, a W Residences Marina View, comprising a hotel and a residential condominium.
With a combined net worth of $5.2 billion, the Lee brothers are among the wealthiest in Malaysia. They are the sons of the late Lee Shin Ying, who built a thriving palm oil and property business until his death in 2019. Lee Yeow Chor runs the palm oil business under separately listed IOI Corp, while his younger brother Yeow Seng helms the real estate company.
For City Developments, the divestment of its stake in South Beach would help the company pare down its debts, which has eroded its bottomline. CDL's net profit slumped 37% to S$201 million in 2024 amid weaker contributions from property development and increased finance charges.
Sherman Kwek, group CEO of CDL, said proceeds from the divestment will help reduce the company's gearing and redeploy capital. The company has been selectively developing new residential projects in Singapore amid softening demand.
City Developments this week submitted the highest bid of S$608 million for a residential plot in the western Singapore suburb of Jurong. It plans to build five 16-story residential blocks with a total of 575 units on the site, which sits right next to the Lakeside MRT station.
'We look forward to creating a vibrant residential community that complements the ongoing transformation of the Jurong Lake District into a vibrant lifestyle and commercial hub, aligned with Singapore's broader decentralisation strategy and future growth corridors,' Sherman Kwek said in a separate statement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Skift
44 minutes ago
- Skift
Capella's Break-Out Year: Four Openings, Two Brands, Cracking Luxury's Toughest Challenge
The Singapore-based hotel group expands its portfolio while expanding a second brand, demonstrating that growth and craft excellence aren't mutually exclusive. On Experience Colin Nagy is a marketing strategist and writes on customer-centric experiences and innovation across the luxury sector, hotels, aviation, and beyond. You can read all of his writing Colin Nagy is a marketing strategist and writes on customer-centric experiences and innovation across the luxury sector, hotels, aviation, and beyond. You can read all of his writing here Capella Hotels may be solving luxury hospitality's toughest equation: maintaining intimacy while scaling. The Singapore-based group is doubling its footprint in 2025, adding four properties across Asia while simultaneously developing Patina, their cultural-centric second brand, into urban markets. Rather than the blitzscaling approach of larger competitors, the expansion reads as craft-paced growth. Each new property targets underserved markets with distinct positioning, suggesting the group has found a sustainable way to grow without losing what makes them special. "Guests aren't collectors of luxury hotels, they're collectors of meaningful contexts," explains Cristiano Rinaldi, President of Capella, articulating a mindset that seems to be resonating with discerning travelers and addressing a key tension facing luxury hospitality. This intent is evident in Capella's newest properties. Capella Taipei, which opened in April as the city's first luxury hotel debut in several years, immediately filled a void in Taiwan's economic and cultural capital. The 86-key property, designed by Andre Fu, operates as a "modern mansion" with programming that includes calligraphy workshops and night-market expeditions through their "Capella Culturists" program. The execution feels sharp, and despite just opening, seems to be magnetic to the right crowd. During a recent visit, the hotel buzzed with a compelling mix of American tech executives, global business travelers, and affluent Taiwanese locals: a living moodboard that might have appeared in early concept drafts of the property. It felt inspired and different. Two-Brand Approach Similar intentionality appears across their 2025 openings: Capella Kyoto taps into strong interest in Japan's traditional heritage with an intimate 89-key property by Kengo Kuma & Associates, and perhaps most intriguingly, Capella is developing Patina as a parallel luxury brand targeting culturally curious travelers. Where Capella emphasizes heritage and craft, Patina positions itself as "pioneering transformative luxury" for guests seeking creative programming alongside high-touch service. Patina Osaka, their 221-key urban debut, showcases this through partnerships with local tastemakers like Verdy, the Japanese creative who styles for Blackpink and designs limited Nike editions. Verdy lives nearby in Osaka (and also runs a local pizza joint), and their collaborations evolved naturally over time, first at Patina Maldives, and then in his own backyard with the hotel's Listening Room by OJAS (aka Devon Turnbull) channels Japan's vinyl bar culture, while pop-up collaborations lend cultural cred that speak to next-gen luxury travelers. "With Patina, we're definitely not going to color within the lines," Rinaldi explains, describing an approach that allows for a bit of risk-taking while leveraging Capella's operational acumen. Rinaldi also says that some of the cultural dot connecting that Patina does well is also feeding into Capella's pipeline. By positioning Patina as "powered by Capella," they're creating a bit of space for both brands to develop distinct identities while sharing resources and expertise, and providing some necessary clarity to consumers. The group's most significant opportunity remains the United States, where Americans already account for nearly 30% of room nights across their Asian portfolio. Unlike competitors with established North American presence, Capella is building brand recognition through word-of-mouth, a slower but potentially more sustainable approach. The brand is also demonstrating operational execution. Their investment in general managers like Antonio Saponara (currently running Capella Bangkok after fine tuning Patina Maldives) ensures vision-based service that pulls through the front line staff, and the focus on genuine local partnerships, when done well, creates differentiation. Other brands find it hard to have the taste levels or the connections to truly make these feel real. Sydney's Capella (opened in 2023) has also become a gathering place for the international creative class rather than just another central business district hotel. Each property feels distinctly interesting with its own inherent energy. What Comes Next Capella's 2025 expansion represents luxury hospitality's most thoughtful scaling effort in recent memory. By combining disciplined growth with creative programming, they're demonstrating that a boutique and craft mindset and broader reach aren't incompatible, provided the execution remains meticulous. The two-brand strategy adds complexity and remains the biggest risk to watch, which will be interesting to follow. It takes a long time to introduce consumers to one brand, let alone two new ones. The real test comes in the next 18 months. Can Capella Kyoto maintain the cultural authenticity that defines the brand while opening in Japan's most tradition-conscious city? Will American travelers embrace Patina as a distinct experience, or will brand confusion occur? And perhaps most critically, can they secure that elusive U.S. foothold without compromising the patient, relationship-driven approach that got them here? If Capella succeeds on all fronts, they'll have cracked the code that has stymied luxury hospitality for decades. But it will be a strategic, marketing, and operational challenge that will take an unprecedented level of leadership cohesion. But early signs are promising.
TechCrunch
3 hours ago
- TechCrunch
AMD acqui-hires the employees behind Untether AI
In Brief AMD is continuing its acquisition spree. Semiconductor giant AMD acqui-hired the team behind Untether AI, a startup that develops AI inference chips, as originally reported by CRN. Untether claims that their chips are faster and more energy-efficient than their rivals. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Toronto-based Untether was founded in 2018 and has raised more than $150 million in venture capital from firms including Intel Capital, Radical Ventures, and Tracker Capital Management, among others. Untether released an AI chip in October meant to power physical AI applications in machines including cars and agricultural devices. Earlier this week, AMD announced it had acquired AI software optimization platform Brium. TechCrunch has reached out to AMD for more information.
Forbes
4 hours ago
- Forbes
3 Trust-Centric Strategies For Today's Leaders
Trust is given—until it's not. That's true in many industries, from real estate to restaurants to SaaS. An organization's ecosystem of customers, partners, and end-users often inherently trusts that organization to safeguard data and maintain security. However, as cybercriminals become increasingly sophisticated, leaders have their work cut out for them to maintain that trust. And once trust is lost, it can be very difficult to earn it back. Within real estate, concerns around fraud and security are top of mind. The majority of property managers have seen an increase in fraudulent renter applications, payments fraud and data security issues in the last year, according to AppFolio's survey of 2,000 property management professionals. As a result, 40% of property managers are more concerned than they were one year ago about online fraud incidents and 37% are more concerned about data security. This mirrors broader fraud and security trends that every business leader should be paying attention to. Seventy-nine percent of organizations experienced payment fraud attacks in 2024, while data breaches continue to increase. In the current environment, leaders must work across their ecosystem to foster trust and prioritize security. Here are three key areas to focus on. Prioritizing trust starts with your own internal company culture and employees. It's important to create an environment where employees feel comfortable raising concerns and asking questions. One way to do this is by taking a rewards-based approach to employee cybersecurity training, versus a punitive approach. The goal is for employees to speak up if they, for example, spot a phishing attempt—and especially if they think they've fallen for one. Rather than shaming employees, leaders should positively recognize those who bring attention to security or fraud issues. I've seen everything from thank-you emails to a paid lunch used as positive incentives. Thumbs Up Another important part of this strategy is creating channels for employees to report issues quickly and effectively. Anonymous reporting channels can make employees more likely to report concerns and enable security teams to identify potential issues before they turn into major breaches. What's more, this type of channel supports a wider culture of trust and transparency. Many trust practices are nearly invisible when they're done right. This means customers often only think about cybersecurity and fraud protection once something's gone wrong. One thing the AppFolio team has been working on recently is more outward-facing trust initiatives that allow our customers to 'see' and 'feel' our security measures. This is especially important in real estate. We're supporting high-stakes processes like payments, insurance and resident applications every day. Small steps can go a long way here, like enabling two-factor authentication for sign-in so users feel that extra layer of security. On a larger scale, we also proactively communicate around our responsible AI practices, including how we keep customer data private and secure. Concerns around data privacy and security continue to grow amid the rise in generative AI tools, according to Deloitte. We take our responsibility to our customers seriously and follow a strict framework of Responsible AI Principles to evaluate innovation for Fairness, Reliability, Privacy and Security, Transparency, and Accountability. We make this framework available to our customers on our website. Organizations don't just have a responsibility to protect their customers, but to protect their customers' customers as well. Trust and user experience intersect in ways many leaders might not be thinking about. Protecting end-user data is always crucial. Within real estate, residents expect the software they interact with to be secure. Applying for a rental home, signing a lease and moving into a new home can be stressful and overwhelming. Residents deserve an experience they can trust, especially when providing personal and financial information. Here's the tricky part. While end-users expect a secure experience, they also expect a seamless one. Sometimes, fraud prevention and cybersecurity measures can get in the way of that. We've all felt the frustration of being locked out of an account after forgetting a password. In real estate, clunky verification processes can slow down residents' journey of finding a new home. It's important to undergo proper UX testing and take steps to balance security with convenience. Make sure security and fraud prevention tactics are paired with an efficient, frictionless experience for end-users. The Trust Chain The stakes are high for organizations that want to protect their customers, their end-users and their reputation. Fortunately, there are numerous tools and strategies leaders can use to establish trust throughout their chain of impact, from internal culture to customers to end-users. When in doubt, focus on transparent and open communication with all key stakeholders. Make sure employees can bring up potential fraud concerns without fear of reprimand, share clear and straightforward messaging with customers, and build secure end-user experiences without sacrificing usability. With these tactics in mind, leaders will be well equipped to maintain trust throughout their ecosystem and take on ever-evolving fraud and cybersecurity threats.
