The City Developments Ltd (CDL) pulled back from a commercial and hotel project in Incheon, South Korea, said CDL Executive Chairman Kwek Leng Beng.
Under a memorandum of agreement in 2007 with DC Chemical Company, CDL was to raise up to US$300 million into a project in South Korea.
However, Mr. Kwek said yesterday, “The Incheon project was not proceeded with, so there was no commitment of money to be put in. I think we expect some payment from the Korean party because we helped them design and conceive the project.”
CDL’s two partners in a South Beach project, Istithmar World and El-Ad Properties, are “still on board”, said Mr. Kwek
“I have heard rumours circulating that one or both of them may want to get out. If they do want to get out, obviously they will come to us first and offer us.”
“In fact, we have tested and asked whether they want to get out. They want to get out at a profit, I say good bye. Some of them will want to get out.”
“Some of them will just want to carry on because if you are looking at it on a longer-term basis, you cannot look at this kind of project, which will take four to five years, and say I am not interested because the market has turned. You look at it in the medium to longer term if you believe there is a future in Singapore.”
in late 2008, CDL delayed the constructions of the said project to wait for the falling costs. “As far as construction is concerned, we would like to defer another year or so, depending on the market. I have no significant worry about whether we go ahead this year, next year or the year after. But in the meantime, we’re taking the opportunity to fine-tune and save costs wherever possible,” said Mr. Kwek.
Chief Financial Officer for CDL Goh Ann Nee also said that CDL will soon launch the second part of a one billion Islamic bond project with a total project size of about three or four times bigger than the first one, which was raised to million earlier this year.