Source : The Straits Times, 11 Aug 2007
THE $500 million Horizon Towers en bloc sale is off for now.
Majority owners of the Leonie Hill development have decided not to extend the collective sale agreement, which expired on Saturday, by another four months.
Instead, the sales committee will appeal against the decision of the Strata Titles Board made on Aug 3, dismissing the collective sale on technical grounds.
The surprise decision which went in favour of the minority owners, was the first in seven years after a week-long hearing.
Horizon Towers was pledged to be sold to developer Hotel Properties (HPL) and a Middle Eastern fund in January for $500 million.
It was then the biggest collective sale in dollar terms.
But The Grangeford next door was sold en bloc earlier this month at double the asking price per square foot (psf), prompting unhappy Horizon Towers residents to band together to reverse their sale.
Even those who signed the original Horizon sales deal ended up backing the minority owners in their bid to unwind the sale.
Had the sale gone through, each of the 199 flat owners would pocket $2.3 million and the 11 penthouse owners at least $4 million each.
But now the majority owners are threatened by an unprecedented lawsuit of between $800 million and $1 billion for alleged breach of contract.
On Monday, the buyers - Hotel Properties Limited (HPL), Morgan Stanley Real Estate and Qatar Investment Authority ? sent a letter of demand asking that the owners push back the completion deadline by four months and file a fresh application for a collective sale order.
Since then, there had been several meetings with lawyers both with owners and the sales committee.
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