Hot stock: Oxley up 3% after S$1.03b offer for Chevron House

SHARES in property developer Oxley Holdings rose 3 per cent on Friday as the counter resumed trading following a trading halt on Wednesday. This comes on the back of news that it could be selling Chevron House for S$1.025 billion, just 15 months after acquiring the office building in Raffles Place for S$660 million in December 2017.

As at 12.41pm on Friday, the counter was trading at 34 Singapore cents apiece, up 3 per cent, or one Singapore cent. Some 16.5 million shares exchanged hands, making it one of the most heavily traded counters on the Singapore bourse in early morning trade.

Oxley on Thursday said it had accepted an expression of interest (EOI) to acquire Chevron House, and BT understands that the buyer is US-based real estate fund AEW.

The EOI, however, is not legally binding and is subject to the conduct of due diligence.

Chevron House sits on a site with a 99-year leasehold tenure since December 1989, leaving a nearly 70 years' balance lease.

The development has a net lettable area (NLA) of about 261,280 square feet - comprising 215,667 sq ft of offices over 27 floors (from levels six to 32) and 45,613 sq ft of retail space on five floors. It also has unutilised gross floor area (GFA) of about 15,000 sq ft, based on earlier reports.

Oxley's corporate presentation last month showed that the plan is for the building's NLA to increase by 43 per cent to about 374,165 sq ft, subject to approval from the authorities. The S$1.025 billion consideration works out to about S$2,739.43 psf on the increased NLA of about 374,165 sq ft.