Update: Keppel Land's Alpha said to sell stake in Singapore tower

[SINGAPORE] Keppel Land Ltd's investment company is planning to sell its 50 per cent stake in Capital Square, a 16- story building in Singapore's financial district, according to people familiar with the proposal.

Keppel's Alpha Investment Partners will start to seek buyers for the approximately 340,000 square-foot property, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

"There would be announcements made as and when such transactions take place," the company said in an e-mailed response to queries.

The planned sale comes after office rents in the city's central business district jumped 14 per cent last year, the biggest increase in Asia, according to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc, a property brokerage and consulting company.

Alpha bought the property with insurer NTUC Income in 2011 from Munich Re for S$889 million. In the last three years, office values in central Singapore have risen 13 per cent, according to government data.

Tenants at the building, which includes two rows of heritage shophouses, include the local offices of Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc and Bloomberg LP, Keppel Land said in an earlier statement.

BLOOMBERG