Soilbuild’s Lim Chap Huat sues Brookfield, claims it reneged on joint venture: WSJ

[SINGAPORE] Soilbuild Group executive chairman Lim Chap Huat is suing Brookfield Asset Management over alleged breaches of contract and confidentiality linked to a proposed joint venture to acquire industrial properties in Singapore, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The dispute relates to Brookfield’s 2025 acquisition of three Singapore properties from Mapletree Industrial Trust for S$535.3 million.

Lim, Soilbuild and a Soilbuild unit are named claimants in the lawsuit filed with Singapore’s High Court, while Brookfield, its Singapore arm and a Brookfield-controlled entity are named as defendants, according to court documents cited by WSJ.

The claimants allege that Brookfield had agreed with Soilbuild to pursue the acquisition through a joint venture, and that the two sides worked together for several months on the proposed deal.

Brookfield allegedly pulled out of the tie-up two days before Mapletree announced the sale of the properties to the asset manager.

The North American firm told WSJ that it “considers these claims to be completely without merit and will be defending the proceedings vigorously”.

Lim and Soilbuild are seeking unspecified damages over Brookfield’s alleged breach of an agreement to pursue the joint venture, as well as the alleged unauthorised use of Soilbuild’s proprietary commercial information, among other claims.

According to the lawsuit, Brookfield approached Soilbuild in December 2024 with a proposal to “work together on a bid to buy commercial assets from Mapletree”. At that point, Brookfield had not made any deal in Singapore and the company was said to have “wanted a local partner who could help them navigate the market”.

Soilbuild alleges that the two parties subsequently drafted a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on how their proposed joint venture would operate. Although the memorandum was never signed, Soilbuild claims that both sides continued preparatory work for the acquisition based on terms contained in the draft agreement.

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The lawsuit also alleges that representatives of Brookfield and Soilbuild referred in their correspondence to terms that had been “agreed” in the draft MOU while working on transaction documents for the proposed deal.

Soilbuild contends that the conduct of the two parties “showed that there was a binding agreement in accordance with the terms of the MOU”.

It also claims that Soilbuild carried out substantial due diligence for the proposed acquisition at Brookfield’s request.

The lawsuit alleges that Brookfield used Soilbuild’s know-how, findings and suggestions in its successful bid for the Mapletree assets. Soilbuild also claims it was not reimbursed for fees it paid to several third-party vendors to conduct technical assessments.

In May 2025, Brookfield told Soilbuild that it would proceed with the Mapletree acquisition on its own, shortly after representatives of the two companies held a call that morning to discuss due diligence for the deal, according to the lawsuit.

Two days later, Mapletree announced that it had agreed to sell two business parks and an industrial building complex to Brookfield for S$535.3 million.