Horizon Towers Saga : Ong Beng Seng Meets Owners To Talk Extension

Source : The Business Times, September 20, 2007

'Hilton tea party' shows no consensus among sellers

Mr Ong spoke on how he had never sued anyone in his 30 years of doing business and how he hoped to find a more peaceful way of resolving the situation

Hotelier Ong Beng Seng took centre stage yesterday in a meeting with some 40 Horizon Towers owners to try to convince them of the need to extend the en bloc sale deadline.

The meeting came after repeated attempts by Mr Ong's Hotel Properties Ltd (HPL) failed to secure the much-needed extension which would allow the collective sale to go through.

The event took place just the night before another meeting due to be held today at the Raffles Town Club - when all the owners of Horizon Towers will have to decide if they want to meet HPL's demands.

The majority sellers of the Leonie Hill development - the 270 owners who agreed in February to sell Horizon Towers en bloc to HPL, Morgan Stanley Real Estate-managed funds and Qatar Investment Authority for $500 million - are being sued by the buyers.

The legal action follows the refusal by the Strata Titles Board (STB) to grant a collective sale order to Horizon Towers on the grounds that the application was defective. STB's decision, coming just days ahead of the sale completion deadline, meant there was too little time left for a fresh application to be filed.

HPL and its partners want the sellers to extend the sale deadline, but the sellers have consistently refused to do so. The buyers have now sued the sellers - demanding that they extend the collective sale completion deadline or face the possibility of having to pay millions of dollars in damages each.

The aim of Mr Ong's meeting with some 40 sellers yesterday - to which the media were not invited - was to find a way to head off further legal wranglings. He had hoped to convince this group of sellers - who are known to be keen for the collective sale agreement go through - of the need to extend the sale deadline.

Those who attended yesterday's meeting at the Hilton, at HPL's invitation, said Mr Ong spoke of how he had never sued anyone in his 30 years of doing business and how he hoped to find a more peaceful way of resolving the situation.

Attendees at yesterday's 'Hilton tea party' - as one of the sellers dubbed the meeting - said that HPL's lawyers, Allen & Gledhill, explained the history and legal implications of developments. Senior Counsel K Shanmugam told the would-be sellers that they had to decide if they wanted to elect a new sales committee and extend the sale deadline - and that they should hire lawyers to help them do so.

But while this group of sellers may be keen to extend the deadline, there are others who strongly object. One seller told BT: 'It's improper to put the threat of a lawsuit over us, to get us to extend the deadline, when we've already applied to the High Court to appeal the STB's decision. We should just wait for the result of that appeal (to be heard on Sept 28) before thinking about an extension.'

Another vocal group of sellers, represented by Wong & Leow, also objected strongly to yesterday's Hilton meeting. They said the meeting had been called without proper notice and could have the effect of rewriting the collective sale agreement. The divergent views between the now clearly splintered groups of sellers mean it will be tough for the owners to reach any satisfactory agreement easily.

Yet, that's just what the sellers are aiming to do in today's meeting at the Raffles Town Club. The gathering seeks to get all the majority sellers to vote on whether they should appoint a new sales committee and whether they should extend the deadline.

Horizon Towers is currently without a sales committee, after members of the last committee quit earlier this month - possibly owing to the strain of the situation.

Mr Ong spoke on how he had never sued anyone in his 30 years of doing business and how he hoped to find a more peaceful way of resolving the situation.