Majority sellers still trying to form sales committee; some keen to contest suit
THE majority sellers of Horizon Towers missed a deadline to extend the completion date for the collective sale of the development.The enormous personal liability has splintered the sellers as a group.
And the buyers are now set to make good on their threat to haul each and every one of the sellers to court and sue them for millions of dollars.
The buyers of the Leonie Hill property - Hotel Properties Ltd (HPL), Morgan Stanley Real Estate-managed funds and Qatar Investment Authority - had given the majority sellers until Tuesday this week, Sept 11, to meet their demands for an extension of the completion date.
The deadline was set after repeated requests earlier for an extension were ignored. BT understands the sellers did not respond to the latest deadline or extend the completion date.
It is understood that a High Court hearing is set for Sept 27. At the hearing, the buyers will ask the court to declare the majority sellers in breach of a collective sale agreement signed by both sides in February.
They will also ask the court to award them damages of between $800 million and $1 billion, as well as interest and costs.
This means the 270 owners - of 173 units - who signed off on the en bloc sale are now personally liable for $3.7 million each, or $5.78 million per unit. It is believed that the enormity of the personal liability has splintered the sellers as a group. Some owners have indicated they want to extend the deadline, while others are keen to contest the lawsuit.
This has driven several owners to seek their own legal representation - apart from group representation in the form of law firm Tan Rajah & Cheah.
The Horizon Towers sales committee disintegrated last week. The last three members resigned on Friday, after four other members quit in the days before.
The majority sellers are now scrambling to assemble a new sales committee so there will be some sort of representation for the entire group, to manage the en bloc saga going forward.
The en bloc sale collapsed in August after the Strata Titles Board (STB) refused to grant a collective sale order on the grounds that Horizon Towers filed a defective application.
STB's decision, just days before the sale completion deadline, meant there was no time to file a fresh en bloc application.
The buyers wanted the majority sellers to extend the sale completion deadline by four months, appeal against STB's decision and file a fresh application if needed.
The sellers have appealed against STB's decision but have not extended the deadline. Nor have they indicated whether they intend to file a fresh application with STB.
It has been reported that the majority sellers regretted their decision to sell Horizon Towers for $500 million to HPL and its partners after neighbouring developments began fetching much higher prices in the months that followed.
HPL and its partners allege that the sellers have not done everything in their power to file a proper application to STB - a condition of the sale agreement - and are suing them on this basis.
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