Dasin Retail Trust terminates sale and purchase agreement with two ARA units

DASIN Retail Trust's trustee-manager announced on Monday that its chairman Zhang Zhencheng, as well as Aqua Wealth Holdings, has terminated a proposed sale and purchase agreement with two subsidiaries of ARA Asset Management made in April this year.

Mr Zhang is also a controlling shareholder of the trustee-manager, while Aqua Wealth is a controlling unitholder of the trust.

As part of the earlier proposed agreement, two subsidiaries of ARA Asset Management were to buy a half-stake in the trustee-manager and some 5 per cent of total units issued in the trust.

In a bourse filing, the trustee-manager also announced that Mr Zhang has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding to pursue a strategic partnership with Sino-Ocean Capital Holding, a real estate fund management company.

According to Mr Zhang, the partnership will involve an acquisition of Sino-Ocean Capital, its affiliate Glory Class Ventures or any affiliate designated by Sino-Ocean Capital of 70 per cent of the total issued share capital in the trustee-manager from Mr Zhang.

Sino-Ocean Capital may also acquire no less than 25 per cent of the total issued units in the trust, including units currently held by Glory Class, from Aqua Wealth.

The terms of the partnership are expected to be executed with legally binding definitive documents this month.

Units of Dasin Retail Trust were trading at 58 Singapore cents, down 2.5 cents or 4.1 per cent as at 9.18am.