SingHaiyi Group approved to raise up to S$226.5m via rights issue and placement

To fund US real estate investments.

Shareholders of SingHaiyi Group Ltd. (SingHaiyi) have approved a rights issue and share placement to raise up to S$226.5 million, along with plans by the SGX Catalist-listed developer to invest in U.S. real estate.

The Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) was chaired by newly appointed Non-Executive Chairman, Mr Neil Bush, the son and brother of two former U.S. Presidents.

The shareholders approved a rights issue of up to 12.92 billion new ordinary shares at 1.5 Singapore cents per share to raise up to S$193.5 million, and the placement of 2.2 billion new ordinary shares at the same price, to raise a further S$32.95 million, to Acquire Wealth Limited, a British Virgin Islands-domiciled company controlled by Mr Gordon Tang (“Mr Tang”) (70%) and New Palace Developments Limited (“New Palace”) (30%).

Haiyi Holdings Pte. Ltd. (Haiyi), which is controlled by Mr Tang, is currently the majority shareholder of SingHaiyi. The ultimate shareholders of New Palace are Mr Bush and his wife Mr Bush was appointed Non-Executive Chairman of SingHaiyi on 22 April 2013.

The combined capital raising will enlarge the issued share capital base of the Company to up to28 billion shares from approximately 12.87 billion shares currently and increase the Company’s Net Tangible Asset (NTA) to S$382.8 million from S$156.3 million.

The corporate exercise is the Company’s largest since the subscription of S$94.4 million worth of Cumulative Non-Redeemable Convertible Non-Voting Perpetual Preference Shares (CCPS) in the Company by Haiyi in August 2012. After Haiyi converted all 80 units of CCPS and completed a mandatory unconditional cash offer, the Company’s name was changed to SingHaiyi from SingXpress Land Ltd with effect from 14 March 2013.

Mr Bush said, “The approval from shareholders today marks a major new chapter in the growth and transformation of SingHaiyi. Not only has the Company’s asset base increased significantly, it is now poised to extend its “investment banking approach” beyond Singapore to property development in the United States.”

“While we remain committed to real estate development in Singapore, with four ongoing public and private residential projects with an estimated combined gross development value of over S$900 million, we believe that the real estate market in the United States is under-estimated with its economy at the beginning of a recovery phase. This situation presents good real estate investment opportunities, for both distressed and non-distressed U.S. real estate
assets,” Mr Bush said.

At the EGM, shareholders also approved a resolution to grant up to 700 million share options in aggregate to Mr Chan Heng Fai (an Executive Director and Deputy Managing Director), Mr Chan Tung Moe and Mr Chan Tong Wan at an exercise price of 1.5 Singapore cents per share. The latter two are also Executive Directors of the Company.

SingHaiyi recorded net profit attributable to shareholders of S$4.3 million for the financial year ended 31 March 2013 (FY2013).

Subsequent to the financial year end, SingHaiyi launched its latest project, CosmoLoft (formerly known as Waldorf Mansions), a 17-storey tower comprising 56 units of freehold, designer lofts at 235 Balestier Road that is expected to be completed in 2016.

Other ongoing projects include the fully sold Charlton Residences, which is due to be completed by December 2014. The Group is also building a 447-unit Pasir Ris One project which is due for completion in 2015, and has an effective 24.5% stake in the Citylife@Tampines project, which was fully sold out in March 2013. This project is expected to be completed in 2016.