LaSalle Investment Management is to sell the hotel and operational business of Swiss Merchant Court Singapore to Kuala Lumpur-based TA Enterprise for $260 million.
According to reports in the Malaysian press, the financial services and property and hospitality investment company has agreed an all-cash deal for the hotel.
Chicago-based LaSalle is to sell the Luxury hotel on Merchant Road from its second Asian opportunity fund, the LaSalle Asia Opportunity Fund II, which launched in 2005 and raised $1 billion of equity.
The sale of the hotel, which opened in 1997, is still dependent on various approvals.
LaSalle has been a cautious investor in Asia in recent times. Having closed on $3 billion of equity last year for its follow-up to the LaSalle Asia Opportunity Fund II, the firm has spent only 20 percent of that sum, with the rest remaining as dry powder.
In February, David Edwards, LaSalle’s Asia-Pacific research director, said in a media briefing: “This is a time to proceed with caution. Although growth in Asia-Pacific is likely to exceed other major regions, the slower prospects for the US and Europe will continue to degrade prospects (in the region) for 2009 to 2010.”
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