22-05-2025
Thomson View's $810 million sale put on hold after lawyers submitted ‘incomplete' documents
UOL, SingLand and CLD signed a conditional call-and-put option in October 2024 to acquire the 99-year leasehold development at $810 million. PHOTO: THE BUSINESS TIMES
SINGAPORE - The $810 million sale of Thomson View condominium was put on hold by a High Court judge after the lawyers representing the collective sale committee (CSC) submitted 'incomplete' documents.
At least 25 residents and parties related to the Thomson View sale packed the courtroom on May 22, awaiting the High Court's ruling on the fate of the $810 million sale, potentially the biggest residential collective sale since Chuan Park's $890 million sale in May 2023.
High Court Judge Audrey Lim spent a better part of the hearing dressing down the lawyers of the Thomson View CSC for errors in documents, including submitting an 'incomplete' affidavit, and told them 'it is important you do the proper due diligence'.
Thomson View was sold to UOL, Singapore Land (SingLand) and CapitaLand Development (CLD), after at least 80 per cent of owners (206 units) consented to lower their reserve price to $808 million, allowing them to accept the $810 million offer that was below their original reserve price of $918 million.
UOL, SingLand and CLD signed a conditional call-and-put option in October 2024 to acquire the 99-year leasehold development at $810 million. On Nov 25, 2024, UOL announced that it had exercised the call option for the purchase.
In trying to determine if the 80 per cent threshold was met, Justice Lim sought clarifications on the number of signatures in the collective sale agreement (CSA) dated Jan 4, 2024, and the number of signatures in a supplementary collective sale agreement.
The judge pointed out that 'the first time period to obtain all the signatures to cross the 80 per cent threshold is 12 months from the first signature, which means that all 206 signatures must be obtained between Jan 8, 2023, and Jan 7, 2024.
'Some of the signatures are signed out of the time period in October and November 2024,' Justice Lim noted.
CSC lawyer Hui Choon Wai, a partner at Wee Seow Teow LLP, told the court that 'there were 211 unit holders' signatures on the CSA, of which 206 signed the supplementary agreement'.
Justice Lim then asked Ms Hui to explain in another affidavit 'how the CSA and the supplementary CSA differs, in that the CSA contained 211 unit holders' signatures and the supplementary CSA contained 206 of these unit holders' signatures.'
'For the supplementary affidavit, it should only exhibit the extra five unit holders' signatures which are not found in the CSA already exhibited in (CSC member) Cecilia Koh's first affidavit.
'The affidavit should also explain how many of these unit holders signed between Jan 8, 2023, and Jan 7, 2024, and what proportion in terms of shares and plot size they comprise, and whether the 80 per cent requirement was met within the 12-month period,' the judge said.
'The affidavit should also explain that for those signatures that I have pointed out, that are after Jan 7, 2024, how many units they comprise and what is the proportion in terms of shares and plot size,' Justice Lim added.
'If the 80 per cent threshold is not made out, counsel is to file written submissions to explain why the court should grant this application' to approve the sale, Justice Lim said.
'It is important you do the proper due diligence,' the judge said.
'You spent a lot of time trying to get the requisite (80 per cent) threshold... and you have errors all over the place,' she added.
A group of dissenting homeowners had filed objections to the Strata Titles Boards (STB) , which stopped the en bloc process after mediation efforts failed. It is unclear on what grounds they objected to the sale.
Two of the six dissenting homeowners – Goh Mia Song and Lim Choe San – who had withdrawn their objections on March 29, were at the hearing.
When asked by The Straits Times why they had objected initially, both declined to comment.
The other four dissenting parties did not attend the hearing. They had withdrawn their objections one day before the CSC applied to the High Court on March 28 to seek approval for the sale.
Apart from the stop order issued on March 19 for Thomson View, there have been no other stop orders issued for collective sales so far in 2025, an STB spokesperson told ST.
The next court mention is July 1.
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