New sale committee formed and they hope to avert potential lawsuit.
A LARGE group of Horizon Towers sellers voted last night to extend a deadline for the sale of the condominium, in a bid to head off a lawsuit over an earlier $500 million sale that fell through.
The sellers last night voted to do everything ‘reasonably necessary’ to effect the collective sale of their estate, which has been mired in uncertainty for months.
The sellers hope to avert a lawsuit filed by a Hotel Properties-led (HPL-led) consortium, which is trying to buy the condo. The case is due in court next week.
At a meeting on Wednesday between HPL chief Ong Beng Seng and about 50 sellers, it was made clear that the buyers would adjourn the court hearing if there was an extension of the sale deadline.
Yesterday, HPL spokesman Christopher Lim reiterated this position. ‘If the Horizon Towers transaction goes through, we will drop the lawsuit as well as claims for damages,’ he said.
The buyers are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for an alleged breach of contract by the condo majority owners.
Last night, the sellers also elected seven members to form a new sale committee - their third so far in the drawn-out saga.
The new committee is to be headed by Mr Lim Seng Hoo. The team includes one person from the old sale committee.
‘The meeting was very well organised and amicable,’ said an owner who attended the meeting.
Sellers of 135 units - out of 177 units - gathered at Raffles Town Club yesterday to attempt to resolve its botched collective sale after their previous sale committee quit.
Only one unit did not vote in favour of the resolutions passed yesterday. Horizon Towers has 199 apartment units and 11 penthouse units.
The 7.30pm meeting ended after 10pm, even though owners were still streaming in from 8pm to 8.30pm. Many owners at the meeting refused to speak to the media.
HPL and its two partners, Morgan Stanley Real Estate-managed funds and Qatar Investment Authority, want to buy Horizon Towers at the $500 million price it inked in February. But the collective sale application was thrown out by the Strata Titles Board (STB) early last month because of a technical error.
The agreement then lapsed because the sellers did not extend an Aug 11 deadline that was written into their contract. Meetings followed and the sale committee eventually quit.
Sellers from 21 units had then called for yesterday’s meeting to pass a few resolutions such as forming a new sale committee and to vote on an extension of the sale deadline to seek an STB order for the sale to go through.
This is ahead of a High Court hearing next Thursday and a High Court appeal to quash the STB order next Friday.
Also yesterday, a group of more than 80 owners represented by lawyers from Wong & Leow engaged a public relations consultant to help them with media relations.
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