The Clementi Mall sale: Property firm Elegant Group and the family behind it

[SINGAPORE] An entity linked to Zhao Zhichao of property firm Elegant Group is believed to have purchased The Clementi Mall in a deal worth $809 million.

The entity had recently entered into a sale-and-purchase agreement with Cuscaden Peak Investments, according to The Business Times. The deal was brokered by real estate firms Cushman & Wakefield and Savills.

Since it was founded in 2015, Elegant Group has amassed a portfolio of six suburban Singapore malls – The Clementi Mall, Grantral Mall@Clementi, Grantral Mall@MacPherson, Changi City Point mall, Kinex mall at Geylang and Tanjong Katong Complex, which is undergoing refurbishment.

Cuscaden Peak Investments is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cuscaden Peak, a consortium originally comprising Hotel Properties, CLA Real Estate Holdings and a Mapletree Investments unit that took over Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) in 2022.

The takeover resulted in Cuscaden Peak Investments acquiring assets that had been held by SPH Reit, which was later renamed Paragon Reit. These assets included The Clementi Mall.

The Clementi Mall is a five-storey shopping mall next to Clementi MRT station. Its 99-year leasehold tenure began in in 2010, leaving a balance term of close to 84 years.

What we know about Elegant Group

Elegant Group is linked to Grantral Group, a Guangzhou-based conglomerate founded in 1982 whose businesses include commercial properties, real estate and financial services.

Grantral Group’s developments include wholesale markets, many of which sell textiles, clothing or meat and vegetables, industrial parks, shopping malls, luxury villas, and a hotel at a hot spring resort, according to its website.

At least two Grantral Group-linked entities in China are wholly owned by companies registered to the same address as Elegant in Singapore.

One of the connections between Elegant Group and Grantral Group is through Zhao Zhichao, who is listed as a director of Xiaohong Property Management, understood to be the holding company of Elegant Group.

The Straits Times was unable to locate information on Zhao in Chinese corporate information database Qichacha.

Elegant Group shares the same corporate logo as Grantral Group, and both Elegant Group and Xiaohong Property Management have the same registered address at 601 MacPherson Road in Singapore.

Zhao is also a director of several Singapore-registered companies with names similar to those of entities under the China group.

ACRA records indicate that he is a director of Grantral Buangkok Properties, Granstate Family Office and Granstate Fund. Grantral Group in China has a subsidiary named Guangzhou Granstate Industrial Group.

A Granstate Family Office, which was incorporated in Singapore in Dec 2020, also has Zhao as a director.

Zhao Zhichao is also a director of a company called Clementi Times Square, together with Zhao Yingying.

ACRA records show that Zhao Yingying and Zhao Tingting are directors of another entity named Changi Times Square. The two women are believed to be members of the same Zhao family linked to the China group, but their relationship to Zhao is unclear.

ST did not locate any mention of Zhao Zhichao, Zhao Yingying or Zhao Tingting in the Chinese press nor on Grantral Group’s website. But on Grantral Group’s webpage, an article on the company’s annual work meeting for 2023 contained a photo which captured an incomplete name plate that reads “婷婷” (Tingting).

That person, whose face was not shown, was wearing a patterned jacket and seated next to Grantral Group president Zhao Duanwu.

A separate photo in the same article shows a woman wearing a patterned jacket standing next to Zhao Duanwu. It is unclear if she is Zhao Tingting.

Chinese corporate information database Qichacha lists a Zhao Yingying as the chairman of the Grantral-linked Junfeng Holdings (Guangzhou) Group, which counts Zhao Duanwu as one of its directors.

A Zhao Tingting is listed as chairman of Grantral-linked firm Moon Congratulating Card (Panyu), and was also executive director of the now-deregistered Guangzhou Junruilin Medical Investment.

ST understands that Zhao Yingying and Zhao Tingting are Singapore Permanent Residents. Both women have the same registered address in Sentosa.

A spokesperson for Elegant Group and the family declined to comment when contacted.

Other moves in Singapore and Asia-Pacific

In June, the Singapore Land Authority awarded the Tanjong Katong Complex redevelopment contract to Jun Jie Development, with a bid of S$90,000,888.

Acra records list Zhao Zhichao as a director of the firm, whose registered address is also 601 MacPherson Road. 

According to Chinese corporate information database Qichacha, a company named Jun Jie Holdings, also registered in Singapore to this address, is the sole shareholder of Grantral-linked entity Guangzhou Junjie Industrial Group.

In September, property developer UOL entered into an agreement to sell Kinex, a retail mall in Katong, for S$375 million to Xiaohong Property Management and a company named Kinex Times Square.

Other deals linked to Elegant Group and the Zhao family include the purchase of several retail and office spaces in Sydney and Wollongong in Australia.

Industry insiders who declined to be named said that not much is known about the Zhao family, but that they have been transferring their wealth from Guangzhou and Hong Kong into Singapore in the last few years.

Singaporean realtor Aric Lim, who was not involved in the Clementi Mall deal, said that he’d seen an increase of Chinese interest in the Republic’s retail and commercial spaces since late 2024.

Chinese enquiries, he estimated, had gone up by some 30 to 40 per cent from a year earlier. Properties they are interested in include shophouses, hotels, strata retail and office spaces — “all those that are not attracting ABSD”, said the associate senior district director at Huttons Group.

“Just this morning, another Chinese (customer) also inquired with me about a row of shophouses,” he told ST over the phone on Dec 6.  Singapore hiked Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates for residential properties in 2023 more steeply for foreigners than Singaporeans or PRs. ABSD does not apply to purchases of retail or commercial properties. THE STRAITS TIMES