T&T Group rejected involvement in $321 million project in Thu Thiem as Keppel Land acted strangely

By Minh An - May 11, 2018 | 08:29 AM GMT+7

TheLEADERThe major shareholder of Quoc Loc Phat Company, which is the owner of Song Viet complex in Thu Thiem urban area, HoChiMinh city has recently transferred most of the shares to another investor.

T&T Group rejected involvement in $321 million project in Thu Thiem as Keppel Land acted strangely
Song Viet complex, which lies between the red lines, is an important project in Thu Thiem urban area.

The 7.6-hectare Song Viet complex, located in functional zone No.1, is the most important project of Thu Thiem new urban area. Its total investment is about $321 million, which was allocated to Quoc Loc Phat JSC at the end of last year. This company was founded by individual shareholders and a real estate company in Hanoi.

But after being assigned as the project owner, the shareholder structure of Quoc Loc Phat has considerably changed. Accordingly, the Singaporean real estate company Keppel Land bought a 45% stake of Quoc Loc Phat with the total value of more than $30.8 million.

An individual named Pham Quang Hung held the remaining 45% of the shares then, and he was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Quoc Loc Phat JSC.

However, recently, Hung has sold the majority of shares and owns only 14.09% now, according to the business registration information of this company in early this May. This document does not disclose the information about new shareholders of the company.

In a relevant move, on the website of T&T Group, Song Viet complex in Thu Thiem urban area was introduced as a typical project in its real estate activities in Ho Chi Minh city.

However, T&T Group's communication representative said that the Group did not own, contribute their capital or buy shares in this project. Currently, this project has been removed from the corporate website.

In the 2017 report, Keppel Land still owned a 45% stake of the project. However, in the documents presented to investors at the end of April 2018, the company did not mention it among their projects and land funds in Vietnam.

As one of the largest real estate companies in Singapore, Keppel Land is investing heavily in Vietnam, with large-scale projects such as Saigon Centre, Saigon Sports City, Palm City, Riviera Point and Dong Nai Waterfront City. Recently, the company has bought two more projects with the total investment of nearly $300 million.

Notably, in Thu Thiem, Keppel Land owns a 40% stake in Empire, the largest project worth $1.2 billion which has the 86-storey complex tower as a highlight.