CDL, IOI's South Beach complex snags S$1.22b green loan

A GROUP of lenders - DBS, UOB, Maybank, SMBC and OCBC - has provided South Beach Consortium (SBC) with a five-year green loan totalling S$1.22 billion.

Proceeds will be used to refinance SBC's namesake integrated office, residential, hotel and retail development at Beach Road, known as South Beach.

This marks one of Singapore's largest green loans to date, said the consortium, which is a joint venture (JV) between City Developments Ltd (CDL) and Malaysia's IOI Properties Group.

DBS is the lead green adviser while UOB is the green adviser.

CDL group chief financial officer Yiong Yim Ming noted that including this loan, the property group has clinched over S$2.5 billion of sustainable financing to date, in the form of a green bond, green loans and a sustainability-linked loan.

The developer's "strong sustainability track record" enables it to tap the fast-growing sustainable financing pool to benefit its JV projects, Ms Yiong added.

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South Beach is a double Green Mark Platinum development. The consortium won the site tender in 2007 via a "two-envelope" system that emphasised the quality of the developer's concept. One of the eco-friendly features at South Beach is its microclimatic canopy, which harvests rainwater and is fitted with photovoltaic cells to convert solar energy into electricity.

The refinancing of South Beach will be conducted in alignment with CDL's sustainable finance framework.

SBC said in a press statement that the framework demonstrates how the CDL group intends to "fund projects or innovations that will deliver social and environmental benefits to support the group's business strategy and vision".

Samantha Tan, SBC general manager, said the green loan is a "strong testament" to South Beach's efforts in driving the green built-environment movement.

Last July, M+S, Malaysia and Singapore's national JV, obtained a S$1.95 billion green loan for the Marina One mixed-use development from DBS, OCBC and UOB. It was the biggest green loan for a real estate company in the Asia-Pacific at the time.