Herbert Smith Freehills LLP has acted for Gemshine Investments (S) Pte Ltd (Gemshine) in its acquisition of Compass Point mall, which completed on 20 November 2012. Compass Point is a 5 storey strata-titled suburban mall in Sengkang, Singapore, with a net lettable area of 269,546 sq ft. The acquisition involved shares and debt for a purchase price of S$519 million.
Gemshine is an incorporated joint venture between PRUPIM-managed Asia Property Fund and Frasers Centrepoint Limited.
Asia Property Fund is an open-end SICAV-SIF incorporated in Luxembourg with a diversified investment mandate in core Asia Pacific real estate.
The vendor, Sengkang Mall Limited (SML), applied the sale proceeds towards the redemption of senior and junior bonds issued in 2002 when Compass Point was securitised.
Simon Taskunas, head of Herbert Smith Freehills’ real estate funds practice in Asia, led the firm’s Singapore team which included senior associate Cheryl Neo, and associate Amy Hale.
Taskunas commented:
“It was a pleasure for us to work with Gemshine’s extremely sophisticated team in Singapore. Unwinding a 10-year old securitisation structure involved multiple parties and work streams, and various complexities. Suburban retail malls in Singapore are tightly held and highly sought after, so Gemshine has done well to secure Compass Point.”
Herbert Smith Freehills also worked with Singapore counsel, WongPartnership LLP. Shook Lin & Bok LLP acted for SML, while Allen & Gledhill LLP represented Gemshine’s financier, OCBC Bank.
