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Daily Archives: 1 Oct 2009

Jurong Island weighs options as land runs out

Posted on 1 Oct 2009 | Comments Off

Choice between floating facilities, land reclamation to be made soon

Jurong Island is running out of land and Singapore will decide early next year on how to augment space at the oil and petrochemicals hub that houses biggies such as ExxonMobil and Shell. One option is to build large floating facilities there to store oil, while further land reclamation is another possibility.

As it is, 75 per cent of the island’s 3,000 hectares has been taken up or reserved by oil and petrochemical investors, a JTC Corporation spokeswoman told BT yesterday, adding that ‘JTC is in discussions with companies for the remaining 25 per cent’.

It was only last Friday that JTC celebrated the completion of Phases 3 and 4 of reclamation, which added 1,500ha and doubled the total land available at the highly integrated island complex. And so far, 95 investors have ploughed in more than S$31 billion there so far.

But already, some companies which had earlier postponed investments because of the global downturn will be resuming their projects soon, JTC chairman Cedric Foo said last week, without citing names. Continue reading →

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Posted in Office / Retail / Industrial

Tagged JTC, Jurong Island, Jurong Rock Cavern, Land Reclamation, Singapore Industrial, Very Large Floating Structures

HSBC selling its Paris, London, NY offices

Posted on 1 Oct 2009 | Comments Off

HSBC is close to selling a trio of landmark offices in London, New York and Paris to boost its balance sheet by around US$2 billion by the end of the year, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Europe’s biggest bank has been mulling offers to sell its premises on New York’s Fifth Avenue, the Champs Elysees in Paris and London’s Canary Wharf for several months. It is now in advanced talks with buyers on each asset with a view to striking deals within weeks, the source said.

‘We can confirm we have received expressions of interest in the properties and we are evaluating those expressions of interest,’ a spokesman for HSBC told Reuters.

Bids for the New York office have come in at between US$350 million and US$400 million, the source said. The London and Paris buildings have attracted offers of around US$1.3 billion and US$500 million respectively, he said. Continue reading →