Slaughter and May advised Singbridge International Singapore Pte Ltd. - joint venture with China Merchants Land

Slaughter and May advised Singbridge International Singapore Pte Ltd. (Singbridge), through its subsidiary Maxwell Investment and Development Pte Ltd. (Maxwell Investment), on its formation of a joint venture with Cosmos Harvest Development Limited (Cosmos Harvest), an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of China Merchants Land Limited.

The business scope of the joint venture is construction and development of a real estate project situated in the Knowledge City in Guangzhou, China. The project land has a total area of 179,039 square metres, with a permitted plot ratio between 1 and 1.6, and is designated for a mix of residential and commercial usage. Following exclusive negotiations since 2013 and the injection of the project land into the project company (wholly-owned by the joint venture company) at the end of 2014, the parties entered into a share subscription agreement on 8 April 2016 and the completion of the transaction took place on 15 April 2016. Upon completion, the joint venture is held by Cosmos Harvest as to 60% and Maxwell Investment as to the remaining 40%.

Singbridge is part of the Ascendas-Singbridge group based in Singapore. Jointly owned by Temasek and JTC Corporation (JTC) through a 51:49 partnership, Ascendas-Singbridge is the asset and investment holding arm of the integrated urban solutions platform formed by Temasek and JTC to capitalise on urbanisation trends in the region.

China Merchants Land Limited is a company listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (SEHK: 978) and is part of the group of China Merchants Group Limited (CMG), a major state-owned enterprise directly operated by the PRC central government. As at 2013, the group managed a total of RMB4.42 trillion worth of assets. CMG is principally engaged in three core industries, namely, transportation and infrastructure construction, management and services (ports, highways, energy transport and logistics); financial investment and management; property development and operation.

Justin Chan Partner