Fraser and Neave Group announces securitisation of Compass Point Shopping Centre

SINGAPORE - 12 November 2002 - Mainboard-listed Fraser and Neave Limited (F&N) announced today that it will be securitising its latest retail property, Compass Point Shopping Centre (Compass Point), as part of its overall plan to re-deploy assets to higher yielding activities, thereby enhancing shareholder value.

Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nasidon Investments Pte Ltd, has granted options to purchase the strata title units in Compass Point to subsidiaries of Sengkang Mall Ltd (SML), a special purpose vehicle set up to raise funds by way of an asset securitisation through the issue of S$335 million in principal amount of bonds; comprising S$201m in Senior Bonds and S$134m in Junior Bonds (with attached preference shares). The coupons for the 10-year Senior Bonds and Junior Bonds are 4.88% p.a. and 8% p.a. respectively. The Senior Bonds rank ahead of the Junior Bonds in terms of principal and coupon payments. Approval-in-principle has been obtained from the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, for the listing of the securities.

The issue of the bonds and the preference shares are lead-managed by The Development Bank of Singapore Ltd and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited.

F&N, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Centrepoint Properties Ltd (CPL), intends to purchase approximately 45% of the Junior Bonds to be issued. The balance of the Junior Bonds and the entire amount of the Senior Bonds to be issued are expected to be purchased by institutional and sophisticated investors.

Compass Point, which has been in operation since August 2002, is spread out over four storeys and a basement with a net lettable area of 269,546 square feet. It will continue to be managed by a wholly-owned subsidiary of F&N under a property management agreement following the securitisation.

Said F&N's Managing Director, Dr Han Cheng Fong, "One of our Group's foremost priorities is to improve asset productivity by managing reallocation of resources from lower to higher yielding activities, and at the same time placing greater emphasis on asset-light, fee-based businesses.

The Compass Point transaction is in line with this strategy of realising development gains at an opportune time whilst retaining management of the retail properties. In the past, we developed and held retail properties for rental returns as well as management fees. We will structure the realisation of assets to maximise value for our shareholders and time these to coincide with the Group's investment opportunities."

Mr Jeffrey Heng, Chief Executive Officer of CPL, said that CPL's focus would be to build on its core competency in retail mall management and to consolidate its pole position as shopping centre developers and managers with more than 1,400,000 square feet of prime retail space presently under management. "By concentrating on our retail management concept under the Malls of Centrepoint brand name, we believe that we can create a new paradigm in terms of retail mall management of owned shopping centres as well as those belonging to third parties.

At the same time, we will be able to use this opportunity to leverage upon our strengths in mall management to further consolidate CPL's position as a key property player in this region," he said. "The fact that Compass Point is sold at S$1,243 psf of net lettable area demonstrates the property's locational strength and also the confidence in Centrepoint's retail management concept."