The senior management of Straits Trading Company (STC) said that the mainboard-listed firm is now ready to expand its property and is watching for suitable acquisitions.
Mr. Eric Teng, CEO of STC’s property arm, said that it is looking for opportunities to buy existing properties in the retail, office and residential sectors in the United Kingdom, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore markets. “Our property arm has a strong focus on lifestyle, and we will be developing properties such as strata-landed residential homes,” Mr. Teng said during the official opening of the Straits Trading Building.
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Completed in November 2009, the 28-storey tower sits on the same site as the first 21-storey building completed in 1972. "The building, which has around 160,000 sq ft of lettable area, has achieved 95 percent occupancy," said Mr. Teng.
STC, together with Tan Chin Tuan Foundation and 34 business partners, donated over $330,000 to three adopted charities and to the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund to celebrate the official opening of the building on Tuesday.
“Just as the old Straits Trading Building had to make way for this new building, The Straits Trading Company has had to evolve, transform and reinvent itself to fit into the new business landscape,” said Ms. Chew Gek Khim, executive chairman of STC, during the ceremony.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Mr. Teo Chee Hean, who was the guest-of-honour at the event, unveiled a commemorative tin ingot with Ms. Chew to officially open the new building.
“Even as we remain cognizant of our rich and colourful 123-year heritages built on the business of tin mining and smelting, we continue to innovate and improve with the times,” added Ms. Chew.