BTO: Is Raffles Hotel on sale or not?

Business Times - 04 May 2009

COMMENTARY
Is Raffles Hotel on sale or not?

URA's approval for its expansion leaves many wondering

By EMILYN YAP

 

REGARDLESS of what his plans really are for Raffles Hotel, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal seems to have made a smart move by getting the authorities' approval to expand it.

 

The prince's investment company said recently that its unit, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI), had secured the go-ahead to add as many as 78 guest rooms at the hotel's shopping arcade. Coming just days after a London-based newspaper speculated on the hotel's sale, the news once again sparked interest and left many observers wondering about the national monument's fate.

 

Surely FRHI has no plans to sell the hotel if it is still planning to expand it, some say. Well, it depends. The option to redevelop the shopping arcade might come in handy in more ways than one.

 

Supposing that Raffles Hotel is up for sale, the expansion option would make FRHI's offer more attractive to prospective buyers. And if the speculated terms of the offer are true, there would be quite a lot of sweetening to do.

 

Asking price $670m

 

For one, FRHI may be asking for close to $670 million for the hotel, based on the London report. This is pretty hefty considering floundering market conditions today. A BT report last year noted that the hotel and shopping arcade was valued at about $200 million in 2005.

 

The London report did not mention if FRHI has asked to retain management of Raffles Hotel. A long-term management contract (reportedly lasting 40 years) was part of the deal when it tried to sell the property in May last year. Some interested buyers may also find this condition a hard one to swallow if it is still there.

 

If the deal involves a high asking price and a long-term management contract, FRHI would have to justify its terms by showing that high returns are achievable, possibly by having more hotel rooms. And it could add value to its offer by getting the paperwork ready for the next owner.

 

FRHI can expand the hotel on its own but so far, there are few signs of work happening soon. On a visit to the shopping arcade a few days after its possible redevelopment was announced, shops remained open and many sales assistants did not know of plans to move.

 

'It is business as usual for the foreseeable future,' a Raffles Hotels & Resorts' spokeswoman told BT. 'Any proposals for strategic investment in the hotel and arcade are considered preliminary in nature and it would be premature to discuss them at this time.'

 

Downturn repositioning maybe

 

The Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) data last month did not show when the project might get its temporary occupation permit.

 

But supposing that the prince is not seeking a buyer for Raffles Hotel - as his investment company said after the London report surfaced - FRHI may truly be looking for more returns.

 

URA granted approval for the creation of 78 hotel rooms across a gross floor area of over 79,300 sq ft. Assuming that 70 per cent of the new rooms are filled at $590 per night, the hotel can already expect to bring in an additional $11-plus million a year.

 

However, this does not factor in rental losses if some of the shops in the arcade have to make way for rooms. BT understands that retail rents there range from the mid- to high-$20s psf, and they make up a relatively stable source of income in the unpredictable tourism industry.

 

Without details from the hotel, it would be hard to pinpoint changes to come. But some industry observers believe that the hotel will retain some popular outlets and restaurants for a more optimal mix of returns.

 

But why think about having more rooms now, when the global economy is sinking, tourism numbers are down and the swine flu is on the attack? As a property consultant pointed out, renovation works may not be ideal when business is booming. 'In a downturn like this, it will be good to reposition.'

BTO: A little slice of heaven

Business Times - 02 May 2009

A little slice of heaven

Lake Como is one of those natural wonders that simply couldn't have been designed any better, no matter how many times you try. By Geoffrey Eu

 

LONG before George Clooney became a resident and turned it into a personal Italian playground for him and his Hollywood pals, Lake Como was a popular destination for papal representatives, European royalty and well-heeled businessmen who built expansive (and expensive) villas in some of the choicest spots around the lake. These homes provided wonderful views and welcome relief from the rigours of the real world.

 

There's a good reason why Lake Como has attracted the rich and famous to its shores for centuries. It may have something to do with the pristine scenery and its prime location in the northern Italian Lake District, within sight of the Alps and between the commercial centre of Milan and the Swiss border. There are also numerous ski slopes nearby, and swish resorts like St Moritz are just a two-hour drive away.

 

Thanks to its unique topography - featuring snowcapped mountains and green hills that spill down to its shores - and a slim, inverted 'Y' shape that allows for plenty of frontage and unobstructed views of the opposite shore, Lake Como is one of those natural wonders that simply couldn't have been designed any better, no matter how many times you try.

 

At about 46km from top to toe and 120km all the way around, the lake is home to about 180,000 people, spread across larger towns like Como, Lecco and Varenna as well as dozens of much smaller communities. During the lengthy tourist season, which runs from early April to late October, the population swells considerably and the roads around the lake are likely to be crammed with tour buses and weekend traffic.

 

Still, you won't have to go far to secure that away-from-it-all feeling. The clear, deep waters of the lake are an obvious choice - and ferries run between several of the larger towns - but the great outdoors also beckons from the hills, with several charming villages perched hundreds of metres above the lake.

 

The western section of the lake has several places that deserve detailed exploration. The walled part of Como, which dates back to Roman times, is possibly worth a visit, although most of the rest of town is uninspiring and downright ugly. There is, however, a funicular railway to the village of Brunate, where a series of inviting walking trails awaits.

 

Heading north from Como up the western finger of the lake, there are beautiful settings on both shores, including must-see places like Cernobbio, where Villa d'Este, the most famous estate on the lake (and one of the world's most beautiful grand hotels) can be found.

 

The villa was built in the 17th century for a cardinal and acquired in 1815 by Caroline of Brunswick, the Princess of Wales. She was reasonably pleased with her new digs, and persuaded friends to visit by writing: 'I shall be happy to see you in my little nutshell, which is pretty and comfortable, and my gardens are charmant.'

 

The villa was converted to a hotel about six decades later, but not much else has changed - the terrace cafe and bars within the hotel's 25-acre grounds are popular watering holes for gentlemen in dinner jackets and ladies in pearls and summer hats.

 

A few minutes by car up the road is Moltrasio, a hillside village typical of the many smaller communities around the lake. Further on is Laglio, the quiet town that was single-handedly put on the visitor map several years ago by a certain Hollywood star, who spends a significant amount of time there. He has bought three adjoining villas so far, attends town hall meetings and works from home on occasion - scenes from Ocean's Twelve were filmed there.

 

Clooney-spotting is just one of the more recent pastimes in the area, but celebrities, wealthy politicians and other privileged types have always enjoyed access to some of the nicest places on the lake. The late-fashion designer Gianni Versace was well-known for holding court at his lakeside villa, while Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi also has a vacation home here. One of his predecessors in the job, the fascist ruler Benito Mussolini, had a less happy fate here - he was captured by Communist partisans at the end of World War II and executed, along with his mistress, outside the gates of a villa.

 

Several of Como's more traditional activities, along with its historic sites, can be found near the central point in the lake where the two legs of the 'Y' join. These include the nearby towns of Menaggio and Tremezzo and in-between them, Villa Carlotta, a luxurious, art-filled building dating to the 18th-century and named for a Prussian princess. The villa occupies beautiful grounds, complete with terraced gardens.

 

Across from Menaggio on the eastern shore of the lake, the ancient town of Varenna is considered to be among the finest of the Lake Como communities, with many beautiful homes on the lakefront and the hills above the lake. Meanwhile, another old-world hotel, the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, occupies a fabulous spot in Bellagio, at the tip of the peninsular that juts into the middle of the lake.

 

From Bellagio, it is possible to take a boat tour of the lower eastern leg of the lake, where steep cliffs tower over the coastline and give the area a picture-perfect quality. An excursion out onto the lake will give you a unique perspective, depending on the vessel of your choice. Select from a simple rowboat or ferry to romantic steamer or private yacht. Seaplanes are also a common sight around the lake - they are available to shuttle visitors from one end of the lake to the other, and also to various nearby lakes, such as Lake Maggiore and Lake Garda.

 

As anyone who's been to this part of northern Italy will know, Como also has decent shopping options for those seeking to take a break from the haute couture offerings in Milan. As Como is the centre of Italy's silk-making industry, it is no surprise that a number of the factory outlets in the area specialise in silk products. After stocking up on ties and scarves, bargain hunters will also be keen to seek out other made-in-Como goods, including various furniture brands and designer cutlery.

 

An American newspaper columnist once made the assertion that while the exact location of heaven on earth has never been determined, Lake Como could very well be the spot. That's a little corny-sounding to say the least, but there is a nugget of truth to it. I'd ask Mr Clooney for confirmation if I could - but I suspect I know what his answer would be.

BTO: Bright nights

Business Times - 02 May 2009

WORLD GOURMET SUMMIT
Bright nights

The week's dinner offerings were ablaze with Michelin-star power

 

Heinz Beck
La Pergola
Via A Cadlolo 101
Rome 00136, Italy'
Tel +39 06 3509 2152

 

HEINZ Beck is a German chef who went to Rome in the 1990s, set up a restaurant there and conquered the Michelin star inspectors, besides the Romans, of course.

 

Singaporeans got a taste of his award-winning dishes this week, and he proved to be truly an 'Iconic Chef', as the programme labelled him.

 

At a one-night-only dinner at St Regis ballroom, the three-star Michelin chef impressed with innovative dishes that managed to surprise and yet win you over with their simplicity.

 

Right from the start, he showed his knack for combining flavours and his skill for keeping food refined. The lobster medallions were paired with thin strips of pancetta, both of them served warm as if they were just blanched in the kitchen prior to their debut. The ingredients were barely seasoned, retaining their natural flavours, and the squirt of granny smith 'jam' added a nice fruity moistness.

 

How could a German present a variation on pasta that Italian chefs haven't come up with? By mixing strips of red king crab with a smoked aubergine coulis for the sauce, using sedanini pasta, which is like straightened macaroni, and topping it with an 'aromatic crumble'. Delicious.

 

Seafood such as scallops and sea bass were presented in different ways again, including the use of new-fangled cooking equipment that changes the molecular structure of food. Thin slices of raw scallop sandwiched chickpea mash, surrounded by a smoother chickpea puree with drops of intense coffee oil. Then the seabass was slow-cooked in a mild garlic-flavoured olive oil, while the 'Baccala fish snow' on the side turned out to be chilled fish 'powder'.

 

With the experimental bits out of the way, Beck delivered the more traditional dishes of the night, but still with a modern twist. The duck foie gras was delightful - with its sharply sweet layer of sugar caramelising the outer layer of the firm liver, seated on a savoury contrast of porcini mushroom-flavoured bulgar wheat-like 'cereal'.

 

And the braised veal cheek was steeped in black truffle sauce, and tender with requisite collagen-induced 'stickiness'. The cheek was served with Jerusalem artichoke puree.

 

If one had a bone to pick, it was with the apricot jelly and raspberry jelly cubes, with a strongly aromatic basil infusion and bergamot ice-cream - the combination was simply too acidic, and had one flavour too many on the same plate.

 

Although he served over 100 diners for the banquet, chef Beck maintained a good pace through the night. The St Regis staff also have to be commended for their service - they appeared to be comfortable with what they had to do, and not anxious or harried, as waiting staff are prone to be in banquet settings like this.

 

We also enjoyed excellent Chianti wines, making the Iconic Dinner one of the more successful events of this World Gourmet Summit.

 

 

Claudio Sadler

Ristorante Sadler
Milan, Italy
Tel +39 02 5810 4451
www.sadler.it

 

MILAN has a reputation for sticking to its traditional cuisine, but chefs like two-Michelin-starred Claudio Sadler is making sure that modern cuisine is represented as well.

 

Hosted at Domus from Monday to Friday, the introduction to the chef's cuisine was a favourable one. The chef is big on flavours, so the description of his dishes might sound fancy but ultimately they're more appetising than just eye candy - literally.

 

The first dish, for instance, was a chilled but soft cake of burrata cheese topped with a white tomato foam, so you get an ephemeral tomato flavouring the creamy mild cheese, with just a hint of anchovy oil and mild sundried tomato.

 

The black ink risotto with raw cuttlefish was a dream dish with the al dente arborio rice thickly coated with black ink. Sophisticated garnishings on the side - gold leaf sprinkled over the rice, flying fish caviar, a few smears of mango sauce - made it into a dish fit for a two-star Michelin rating.

 

But there was 'fun' food as well, as chef Sadler revealed his cheeky side. He had once consulted for McDonald's in Italy, so his salmon 'sandwich' which he calls the McSadler, is a take on that experience. It looks like a refined, miniature version of a round burger, with luscious chunks of salmon mixed with mozzarella cheese as the filling for two thinly sliced, toasted bread pieces. It's one of the signature dishes at his trattoria in Milan, reveals the chef, although in a bigger portion, of course.

 

Playing with food seems to be the chef's forte - as we deduced from his lamb chop coated with almond flakes and deep-fried strips of aubergine, served with lime-scented baby tomatos. Lovely - as the toasty almonds went well with the lamb.

 

And the dessert had fizz as well - a creamy ice cream-like semifreddo made with beer, with Sprite jello on the side, and a passionfruit cream.

 

While not all of the Michelin-starred chefs perform as well at the World Gourmet Summit here as in their familiar kitchens back home, that can't be said of Claudio Sadler, who transported his diners at Domus this week to his Ristorante Sadler in Milan.

 

Klaus Erfort

Gastehaus Klaus Erfort
Mainzerstrasse 95,
Saarbrucken, 66121 Germany
www.gaestehaus-erfort.de

 

HE may not be a household name in these parts, but German chef Klaus Erfort still managed to make a major impression on diners this week at Jaan, where he presided over a culinary experience of updated classics that was special in every respect - a savoury, sensory feast to remember.

 

All too often, big name chefs make much-hyped appearances in Singapore that turn out to be more disappointing than delicious, but Erfort, 36, a low-profile chef from an off-the-radar destination in Saarbrucken, Germany, about an hour's drive from Strasbourg, made his first Asian gig a good one.

 

It helped perhaps that he was hosted at Jaan, whose resident kitchen maestro Andre Chiang has similarly admirable qualities. Regular diners here are already accustomed to high quality meals and the switch to Erfort's three-Michelin star offering, distilled into a seven-course tasting menu ($240 or $390 with wine pairings) served over five evenings this week, was a seamless transition. The menu was also a mini-masterpiece, comparable perhaps to a very good book where each chapter (or course) is better than the one preceding it.

 

The two starters - raw oysters with spicy soya jelly and apple foam, and raw marinated langoustine with crispy chicken skin and seawater jelly - were an imaginative blend of textures and flavours, tasty and light enough to heighten the sense of anticipation for the dishes to follow.

 

And what followed didn't disappoint. First, a deceptively simple but hard to execute turbot medallion with parsley infusion and glazed morels, then an exquisite fillet of kurobuta pork with beetroot and mustard air - nicely chewy, full of flavour and perfectly cooked.

 

The two-part main dish, slow roasted Bresse pigeon breast and a separate portion of minced pigeon leg with truffle foam and breaded celery root, was also a definite favourite - tasty, tender and accompanied by an intensely flavoured jus that was apparently made using seven different types of sweet wine.

 

The pre-dessert offering arrived in the form of goat cheese ice-cream, served with marinated pineapple. The main dessert was rhubarb served four different ways (with champagne, as a sorbet, with creme brulee and in a gratin, with meringue topping).

 

Erfort's cuisine is both distinctively classical and refreshingly modern, a seeming contradiction that manifests itself in dishes featuring traditional ingredients and rich sauces, presented in a modern style and Asian-sized portions - the result is singularly appealing. The chef, who doesn't speak English or French, was a little concerned that something might have been lost in translation, but he needn't have worried - his cuisine is a winner in any language.

 

Wylie Dufresne & Alex Stupak

wd~50
50 Clinton Street, New York, NY 10002
Tel +1 212 477 2900
www.wd-50.com

 

ITS name brings to mind a certain brand of lubricant, but the guys from avant garde New York restaurant wd~50 didn't have all the cogs moving quite as smoothly as they should have when they cooked at Tippling Club this week, as part of the World Gourmet Summit. Each 11-course meal, on average, ran for between three and four hours, with snooze-inducing pauses in between some of the dishes.

 

Not that wd~50 chef-owner Wylie Dufresne appeared concerned. The Michelin-starred chef sauntered about the kitchen, joking with his staff and occasionally clapping a cook on the back for a job well done.

 

Perhaps, for a man who says he aims to make diners 'reassess taste, texture and how we experience flavour', a meal with plenty of time to reflect on the food was exactly what he was ordering for everyone. And there was a lot to reflect on.

 

How, for instance, had the traditional New York smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel tumbled through the stoves of the chef's mind, to emerge as a slightly browned and toasted sesame-seed-covered ring of bagel-flavoured ice-cream alongside a sheet of crispy cream cheese and salmon threads?

 

How had he thought to combine a sous-vide-cooked scallop with - of all things! - tendons, one draped over the scallop and blow-torched to a melty, chewy consistency and the other dehydrated so that it resembled crispy fish maw?

 

There were other mind-boggling concepts too: fat rolls of passionfruit-puree-stuffed 'flexible' foie gras that melted, light and cream-cheese-like, over the tongue; and the chef's famous reworked eggs Benedict - gummy yellow cylinders with rather thickly breaded cubes oozing Hollandaise sauce.

 

One suspects that Dufresne, who works with food scientists at Mars and M&M's to create new methods of turning traditional food on its head, is capable of doing even wackier food, but it is to his credit that he exercises restraint so that his dishes, on the whole, remain acceptable to diners.

 

Still, those who prefer food done the traditional way - not liquefied or dehydrated or married with chemical substances - may find that much of his cuisine tires the palate after a bit. We were glad of the more simply-done (if that can be said of any of wd~50's recipes) dishes in our meal, such as a slowly steamed and smoked eel that went brilliantly with Campari-infused tofu, scalpel-sliced aubergines and yuzu gel; and a slow-cooked wagyu skirt steak served with ribbons of pasta made from peanut butter (animal gelatin containing proteins is added to peanut butter, which is then combined with transglutaminase so that the protein molecules bind together, allowing the al-dente-like 'pasta' to be made and cut).

 

Desserts at wd~50 are made not by Dufresne, but by an intense young man named Alex Stupak, who's been hailed as one of the best pastry chefs in the world. He was at Tippling Club too, where he magicked up some of the meal's highlights: a fake tart that had no pastry but was all amazingly light passionfruit puree, and a scrumptious brown butter sorbet that you mopped up with a piece of caramelised brioche as it melted, together with a very tart apple puree and parsley foam.

 

There's a lot of 'how/why did they do that?' in a wd~50 meal, even if the tastebuds are not always stimulated. If you're determined to seek the answers, perhaps a trip to New York is in order.

BTO: Condo heroes

Business Times - 02 May 2009

Condo heroes

Specialised eateries are moving into condominium developments and they're cooking up - and creating - quite a storm. By Audrey Phoon

 

UNTIL recently, Singapore's list of best burger places held no more surprises than the familiar sandwiches themselves: among the line-up were such usual suspects as One-Ninety at the Four Seasons, Astons, Iggy's and WineGarage. But then, last November, a tiny joint with a clumsy-sounding name opened in a place where no one would have thought to look for a good burger - and unexpectedly took a bite out of that list.

 

Sunshine @ Carrie's is located within the Sommerville Park condominium at Farrer Drive, and its signature dish is the Sunshine Burger made with beef, bacon and 'a bit of sunshine' - a portobello mushroom. Each patty is hand-formed and juicy, the rashers of bacon are reamed with fat, and the bun is soft and fresh, so it's no surprise that the burger is receiving rave reviews from foodies, some of whom reckon this to be Singapore's best.

 

Of course, as with any other food, that's arguable. What's certain, however, is that the Sommerville Park cafe signals a new age in condo eateries, one where the pau machines and quick-fix fare of yore are replaced by speciality foods.

 

Indeed, Sunshine @ Carrie's aside, several other decent, cuisine-focused eateries have sprung up within condo developments over the past six months. For starters, there's an as-yet-unnamed Korean restaurant at Ridgewood Condominium, and the Italian cafe Buono (opened by the owner of the similarly-named Buono restaurant at Lichfield Road in Serangoon Gardens) within Chuan Park. Over at Rodyk Street's Watermark condo, coffee specialist Kith Cafe has taken up a ground-floor unit, while Japanese seafood cafe Hokkaido Sandwich and Sashimi Bar has anchored at The Sail. Then there's Mandarin Gardens' Thai-influenced Thaipan restaurant, which recently underwent a makeover and reopened in December with a bigger kitchen.

 

Why pick a condo to present food that could easily win over bigger audiences in a central area? Although such locations mean that these eateries get virtually no non-resident walk-ins and have to abide by the estates' by-laws (no structural changes, no renovations without prior approval et cetera), the general consensus is that there is a lot to like about being situated within the residential developments.

 

Says Sunshine @ Carrie's co-owner Andrew Sim, who originally wanted to set up shop at Holland Village: 'The rental is much cheaper, for one thing.' Also, because about 80 per cent of Sommerville Park's residents are expatriates, the cafe - whose business has been 'picking up ever since people started talking about us on the Internet' - gets better feedback as the diner-residents are 'well-travelled and used to eating well'.

 

In any case, how brisk one's business is depends more on quality than on location, reckons Mr Sim, whose background is in food-and-beverage consulting. 'In Singapore, wherever you are, if the food is good, people will come. Look at Sunset Grill at Seletar Airbase - it's so obscure and yet you find people there.'

 

For Hokkaido Sandwich and Sashimi Bar, being in a CBD-situated condo ensures a flow of diners even after office workers leave for home. Ng Wai Khuan, who owns the bistro together with her husband, says that while during the day the cafe is busy with orders from those working at the nearby One Raffles Quay, the bulk of business after-hours comes from The Sail's residents. 'A lot of the other CBD stores are quiet at night, but we get residents coming down for dinner or to grab a quick bite,' she says.

 

In fact, condo eateries may play an even bigger part in residents' lives should the recent outbreak of swine flu worsen. Thaipan's Paul Lee remembers when his restaurant opened in 2003 during the time of the SARS epidemic. 'Our business did really well during that period because everyone was staying in, they didn't go to the supermarket, lots of shops outside were closed. But they still needed to eat so they came downstairs. So for us, that was the time everyone really got to know us.'

 

With many of the condo cafes open to non-residents as well though, some residents feel that the businesses are doing the estates a disservice. At Chuan Park, complaints about parking problems have surfaced, while another resident who declined to be named feels that eateries that are open to the public and located within condos raise security issues. He says: 'The restaurants bring non-residents into the estate, and it's hard to keep tabs on so many people going in and out.'

 

But Thaipan's Mr Lee points out: 'A condo eatery is like a swimming pool, it adds value to the estate. We provide something for the residents and we also draw non-residents who may eventually like the place enough to buy it.

 

'With Mandarin Gardens, for instance, they'll come in and see that the estate not only has a restaurant but also a minimart, a kindergarten and more, and this will give the place more value.'

 

Still, such eateries must do their part to keep the peace, he adds, explaining that Thaipan does not advertise ('so that we don't draw the crowds and inconvenience the residents') nor openly market itself. Instead, the restaurant relies on 'soft marketing tactics' such as word-of-mouth, says Mr Lee.

 

Sunshine @ Carrie's Mr Sim agrees. 'We close by 10pm and our last order is at 9pm so that we have time to shut down our machines and wash up by closing time,' he says. 'We do tell our diners to keep it down and the security guards appear like ninjas if it gets too noisy anyway! But we've not had any problems so far; everyone has been very cooperative. The residents have given me lots of encouragement and the management committee has been very kind to my cafe.

 

'I'll play by the rules because I don't want to make things difficult for all parties.'

 

Most of the eateries BT Weekend spoke to have also introduced delivery or takeaway services so as to minimise the amount of traffic within the condos.

 

It stands to reason that if a balance can be struck, everyone has something to gain, says Mandarin Gardens resident J Chua. 'The cafes will get good business without disrupting the convenience of others, the profile of the condo will be raised - that's if the restaurant is good, of course. And everyone will have one more place to get a decent meal,' she concludes.

Three of the best

Sunshine @ Carrie's
83 Farrer Drive
Sommerville Park clubhouse
Tel 8264-2247

 

WITH its simple aluminium chairs and tables, chalkboard menu and tiny counter behind which the owners cook, Sunshine @ Carrie's is a very plain joint. The burgers served here, however, are anything but. Try the signature Sunshine Burger ($16.50) that's made with a hand-formed 200g Australian beef patty, cheese, sizzling bacon and a juicy portobello mushroom. The meat (which co-owner Andrew Sim says has a marbling grade of mb1+) oozes juices which you can mop up with the chunky fries. If you're feeling adventurous, ask for the cafe's peanut butter Sunshine Burger that's got the addition of melted peanut butter on the bottom half of the bun. It sounds strange but the salty-smooth peanut butter actually goes pretty well with the meat.

 

Mr Sim is an F&B consultant who has had projects in New York and Bangkok, among other places, and he's of the opinion that the 'burgers in Singapore are nothing compared to those in other places'.

 

'The burgers here are all marinated,' he complains. 'I want to taste beef, not herbs and spices. I'm trying to educate people that it's about the meat - I think it's a cardinal sin to marinate beef.'

 

Got a beef with beef? The poolside cafe also serves pizzas or Mr Sim can whip up a portobello burger for you instead, but don't expect him to introduce chicken, fish or pork burgers to the menu. 'I want people to learn to eat beef burgers,' he says. 'I won't diversify into other types.'

 

Hokkaido Sandwich and Sashimi Bar
4 Marina Boulevard
#01-33 The Sail @ Marina Bay
Tel 6509-0685

 

ITS name says it all, really. The six-month-old Hokkaido Sandwich and Sashimi Bar at The Sail serves up the seafood that the Japanese region is so well known for, on sushi rice or specially-baked Japanese bread.

 

There's prawn, scallop, tuna, swordfish, salmon and salmon roe to choose from, but if you want that unique Japanese breakfast-sandwich taste, go for the egg mayonnaise with breaded Hokkaido king crab legs on white bread ($10, above).

 

The crab legs are plump and juicy and the egg is not too creamy, but it's the bread that makes the sandwich. Thick and slightly chewy and dense, it's got that distinct flavour that only authentic Japanese sandwiches have.

 

Owner Ng Wai Khuan (who is a medical doctor and also a partner in M Hotel's Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant), says a top baker hand-makes the bread with premium Japanese flour and no preservatives for the cafe. (There are also other varieties to choose from, such as ciabatta and rye, which are made by the same baker.)

 

Portions are on the small side, but that has not stopped the cafe earning a regular following of discerning diners. One Japanese gourmet, who lives in The Sail and has Michelin inspectors for friends, is a fan of her sandwiches, shares Mrs Ng, adding: 'If my food is good enough for him, I'm happy.'

 

Thaipan Restaurant
13 Siglap Road
Mandarin Gardens
Tel 6448-9827

 

THERE'S decent furniture, contemporary lamps and even the odd stylised divider or two at Thaipan, but the prices inside the 'Pan Asian' restaurant - as owner Paul Lee calls it - are more hawker than anything, thanks to the low rent at its Mandarin Gardens premises.

 

That means you can have things like fish maw soup with crab meat, Jingdu pork and Szechuan chicken for less than $10 for a small serving, while staples such as the restaurant's fried rice and noodle dishes go for just $3.50 a portion.

 

As with lower-priced restaurants, there are some corners cut here and there - the fish maw soup, for instance, had very little crab meat in it, while the butter squid wasn't very fresh. But many of the dishes are very decent and prove that you don't have to pay a lot to get a good meal. The Thaipan fried rice (above), in particular, is extremely tasty. It's studded with cubes of char siew and fired up with chilli padi - and it's just $3.50.

 

To try and serve its customers even better, Thaipan recently expanded the size of its kitchen after a few months of renovation (and consulting with the condo management). 'The kitchen we inherited was not so conducive as it limited operation flow,' says Mr Lee. 'With the renovation, more cooks can cook at the same time.'

BTO: Kitchen talk

Business Times - 02 May 2009

PERSONAL SPACE
Kitchen talk

For interior architect Selina Tay, the kitchen offers a delicious, nostalgia-ridden trail back to the past. By Clarissa Tan

 

SELINA Tay is offering salad for breakfast. The interior architect behind the new book Selina's Dream Kitchens, ensconced in her own elegant, expansive kitchen, gazes at you rather sceptically as you chomp a banana from her fruit basket. She looks as though she's worried it's not quite enough for your morning meal, and produces a fresh bowl of greens out of an impressive-looking Liebherr fridge.

 

'I always make salads for breakfast,' she says. 'I like a salad in the morning. I don't know why. I'm like a cow,' she adds, rolling her eyes in jest.

 

The salad, served in a light oil-based dressing, is very good, which is not surprising considering Ms Tay is almost as well-known for her love of cuisine, as she is for her passion for designing kitchens. She also offers you a variety of teas, coffee from a Nespresso machine neatly fitted into a sleek line of white cupboards, and some pink-coloured fruit juice. You hover round a gleaming black granite counter, which also doubles as a book ledge chock-full of titles such as Mrs Lee's Cookbook, Larousse Gastronomique and the Hamlyn Spice Book.

 

'I always design a house from the kitchen first,' says Ms Tay, who founded boutique interior design company Collective Designs in 1991. 'The kitchen is the heart of a family home. Everyone rallies round the kitchen. I have experienced people's lifestyles changing once they have a well-designed kitchen - they get closer, they spend more time together, they eat better.'

 

Friends and relatives certainly rally round Ms Tay's kitchen, where there's a get-together of some sort almost every week. She hosts a family gathering once a month in her two-storey Paya Lebar home, which she shares with three dogs and a parrot. A minimum of 30 relatives will troop in. (Mind you, with a kitchen of 180 sq ft that's connected to an equally spacious dining room, which in turn flows into the living area and an outdoor pool, they don't have to squeeze too much.)

 

Still, the kitchen is the nexus of the action, and her guests mill around the granite counter, generous Corian-topped surfaces, even a column into which Ms Tay has helpfully built a large flat-screen television, for those who can't bear to part with their football matches or the news.

 

Everything else is hidden - the wine glasses and water tumblers, when not in use, go into beautiful, starkly-grained cabinets of Australian red gum wood, the flatware is stacked into cupboards below the white work surfaces, cutlery into capacious drawers, appliances such as toasters and electric kettles into a storage space concealed by a scroll-up metal screen, and dry goods into a separate little room all their own. The drawers and cabinets are designed so that all their contents are in full view on opening, eliminating the need to fumble about for a bag of flour or a fork.

 

'Is your kitchen always this neat?' you ask, almost incredulously.

 

'Yes,' says Ms Tay, firmly.

 

The kitchen itself opens into a smaller area at the back, or the 'wet kitchen', where an industrial hob and oven takes pride of place, ready to roast up to four chickens or three turkeys at one go. This area also houses a commercial GE fridge and freezer, not to mention a giant sink. We are talking serious entertaining equipment here. Outside in the garden, there's a large Weber barbecue grill and a small plot of land dedicated to growing herbs and vegetables such as limau perut, ladies' fingers, rosemary, blue ginger and pepper.

 

For Ms Tay, kitchens offer a delicious, nostalgia-ridden trail back to the past. Raised in a family of eight children, she remembers sitting around a crowded dining table, digging into her mother's unbeatable Peranakan fare. Mum also made sure her youngest daughter did her share of domestic chores, and Ms Tay fondly remembers peeling taugeh for the household at East Coast Road. 'I loved organising the home for everybody,' she recalls. 'It's like I was born to do what I'm doing now.'

 

So what was her mother's kitchen like? 'Wah, messy,' says Ms Tay, laughing. 'It wasn't a kitchen per se, like so many cooking areas of that time. I remember that everything - the counter tops, the tables - was laminated in green. We also had those foldable wooden tables, you know, with the laminated patterned tops. And the floor was mosaic, though not like the mosaic we have now, which is of a better quality.'

 

She spends a few minutes reminiscing on old Singaporean kitchens, with their net-fronted food cupboards and general makeshift air. In fact, she once designed a kitchen with the kind of apple-green work surfaces that reminded her of her childhood. This kitchen is one of the 28 featured in Selina's Dream Kitchens, a 132-page coffee-table tome published by Epigram Books and written by financial adviser and Ms Tay's client, Monica Gwee.

 

The book is about modern kitchens, but has a short section in front on the evolution of the Singapore kitchen, noting how it has changed from the days when its main feature was a ventilated wooden cabinet, with legs raised on stone cups filled with water to deter ants. Pots and crockery, the book continues, were stored in the upper shelf and live chickens in the lower compartment. It also remarks that despite the dramatic changes, most local kitchens are still divided into 'wet' and 'dry' areas, the former for the wok and deep frying, the latter for the microwave and oven.

 

The book also makes interesting mention of a client who did not want a dining table because she doesn't cook (Tay designed her a table-height marble counter instead), another kitchen owner who wanted to arrange the 'wet' and 'dry' areas according to geomancy rules (the sink and the hob had to be swapped for feng shui reasons) and a pet-lover who had a dog hatch installed between her kitchen and the rest of the apartment to prevent her pooch from entering while she was cooking.

 

Ms Tay's kitchens today are as sleek as you please, almost like an antidote to the more chaotic cooking spaces of yore. She says she would like to do 'country-style' kitchens, with warm, earthy colours and a more rustic feel, but she feels that cool hues and smooth surfaces make more sense in tropical Asia, where the kitchen is something of a refuge from the hot weather.

 

'Imagine if you have a kitchen that was all oranges and reds,' she says. 'It would be like walking into an oven.'

 

Ms Tay's kitchen definitely makes a welcome sanctuary, but you realise that there are other spaces in her home, and ask for a tour. She whizzes you into her living room, waiting room and TV room, all of which are done in the same clean, elegant, monochromatic manner. Lots of art adorn her walls, with the living area displaying several Salvador Dalis and a Miro, and her entrance-way sporting two figurine sculptures in red and grey by XieAige.

 

Out in her garden, apart from the spruced lawns, herb plot and barbecue implements, there hangs a punching bag - 'Yes, I kick-box' - and a bicycle pole with several mountain bikes.

 

Still, you get the feeling that the kitchen is where her heart is, just as she feels the kitchen is the heart of every home. The interior architect clocks in 10 to 12 hours a day, visiting clients' homes and overseeing her factory which manufactures the materials she uses, in a job she feels she is meant to do.

 

'I ask so many questions before I design a kitchen,' she says. 'How many people live here? Are they old or young? How often do they cook and entertain? What kind of cooking do they do? Who cooks it? How do they go about their day?

 

'It's about people. It's about the life of a family.'

 

Selina's Dream Kitchens, by Monica Gwee, is published by Epigram Books (132 pages, $40)

BTO: Desert diplomacy

Business Times - 02 May 2009

LETTER FROM DUBAI
Desert diplomacy

Wong Wai Hon
International graduate
for priority banking,
Standard Chartered Bank

 

ASALAMALAKUM! In Dubai it is common to hear this as a form of greeting and it has certainly helped me to interact with the locals.

 

I was given the opportunity to work for Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai after my graduation from Singapore Management University in July 2008. Ten months have gone by and I love every moment of my time here. The fact that I had never been away from Singapore for more than a month during my travels, and the thought of working overseas and meeting people from around the world, only made the journey here more exciting for me.

 

The first thing that struck me when I arrived in Dubai was the high number of expatriates living here. In fact, you will find more expatriates than locals in almost any part of Dubai. On my very first day of work, I was introduced to my fellow international graduates from 12 different countries. I now have friends from over 30 countries and I continue to meet new people every day.

 

Food is a major draw here, especially for Singaporeans, and I for one explored my options and enjoyed every minute of it. Dubai offers a wide variety of cuisine - Korean, Japanese, Chinese - you name it and you will find it here.

 

My first gastronomical adventure was at a Lebanese restaurant recommended by my Lebanese colleague. I was virtually blown away by it. I ordered chicken tikkas and my colleague taught me to eat the tikkas with hummus, Lebanese bread and fresh vegetables. This particular dish has become a favourite that I enjoy at least once a week.

 

Driving luxury cars is no longer a dream here in Dubai and many Singaporeans living here have bought cars that they usually would not be able to back home. It is not uncommon to meet up with a group of Singaporeans who are all driving BMWs!

 

Weekends in Dubai are never boring as there are all kinds of activities. The Desert Safari tours are a must for the adventurous. For racing fans, the auto dome is hugely popular as well. Sports lovers can look forward to great tennis matches in January and the inaugural F1 race in Abu Dhabi in November 2009.

 

Working in Dubai has its fair share of challenges, and being fresh out of university, I was eager to learn and put my best foot forward. The interactions with clients and staff were fruitful and I learnt that the key to doing well is to be responsive, both towards clients and colleagues. Doing so has helped me build better relationships and trust with them.

 

I was fortunate to have great support from my bank, as well as fellow Singaporeans living in the UAE. That helped me to settle down in Dubai fairly quickly. It was then I realised that when you are abroad, it is essential to lend support to fellow Singaporeans who are moving over.

 

That is the reason why I founded the SMU Alumni Chapter in Dubai in 2008. Just as I have benefited from having a network of Singaporeans helping me, I hope to help people adapt to the local culture during my stay in Dubai. For example, students who are here on internships and graduates who have taken up postings in Dubai. To date, I have helped two student groups.

 

My parting advice to those who are coming to Dubai would be to keep an open mind and venture out of your comfort zone. Only by doing this was I able to adapt quickly to the local environment. It has made my experiences in UAE a memorable chapter in my life, and a great story to tell my children in the future.

BTO: Storm rider

Business Times - 02 May 2009

Storm rider

Piyush Gupta, Citi CEO for its South East Asia Pacific business, candidly admits that the past six months have been the most challenging in his banking career. By Rahul Pathak

 

AROUND Sept 15 last year, Citi customers in Singapore and the region started receiving calls from their bankers. Calm, cheerful voices assured them that their deposits were safe, answered their questions and wished them a good day.

 

That was the time Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy. A chill spread across the banking world as financial institutions contemplated their own mortality. Citi's Singapore war room was a spacious 39th storey office in Millennia Tower with a view of the Marina Bay Golf Course, where Piyush Gupta plotted survival.

 

'We were really concerned because we saw a lot of people coming in, wondering if they can cash out. Now the first rule in banking is never to let a bank run happen. Once a bank run happens you're just dead.

 

'So we worked overnight through the weekend to make sure we were adequately funded in all our branches. We didn't want a situation where a client comes in and says he wants to withdraw his cash and we don't have cash. We also took ads out in the papers and called every single customer and said look, you don't need to worry, we are safe and everything is going to be all right.'

 

Some customers still withdrew their cash. Later they put it back. Citibankers thought they had dodged a bullet. But then Citi's stock price fell below a dollar and the whole cycle of panic and persuasion started again. Now Mr Gupta can smile about it, but he admits that it isn't easy to calm jangled nerves.

 

He has the air of a man who generally has things under control. Some of his colleagues tell you, with a tinge of awe, how quickly he can spot inconsistencies in presentations, how long he hits the golf ball (though not always straight) and how accessible he is to the staff. The man, himself, candidly admits that the days gone by have tested him.

 

'The last six months have been, in many ways, the most challenging in my banking career,' he says. 'I've dealt with recessionary cycles where excesses of greed are being addressed, but it's unusual to be in a situation where you're dealing with fear. There's fear in your counterparties, there's fear in your clients and there's fear in your employees. People are worried whether they should do business with you, they're worried whether their deposits are safe with you, they're scared whether their jobs are safe with you.'

 

As the man charged with running one of the world's biggest banks in this part of the world - at a time when it has both contributed to the financial crisis and suffered from it - Mr Gupta says that his primary task is to build confidence among his clients and counterparties and to tell them exactly what is going on.

 

'There is no short cut to being honest and being honest constantly and with everybody,' he says. 'You've got to be constantly in people's faces, no matter how difficult the conversations are ... the worst thing you could do is to shy away from a face-to-face conversation.'

 

The markets have collapsed and some clients have lost half their net worth. 'The first reaction among many people is 'I'd better not call this client because he'll be angry'. But then you'll always lose. It's most important to call the client then, get over the anger and let him know you're there for him to rebuild this thing ... you have to have the moral courage to recognise that you've screwed up, and we screwed up, or rather the system screwed up but we're a part of the system.'

 

So exactly who screwed up?

 

Mr Gupta, a Singapore permanent resident who once left the security of his Citi job to become an Internet entrepreneur during the dotcom boom, has spent a lot of time thinking about the mechanics of risk and reward that led to the current crisis. He is willing to stick his neck out and say that at the heart of the mess is a sound banking concept, poorly executed. The concept itself, he feels, was nothing short of revolutionary.

 

Twenty years back, a bank would work out your credit-worthiness before lending you money. Globalisation and technological advances have turned this model on its head. 'It became possible to do one really creative thing. And that was that instead of holding the loan in my books, I could take the risk associated with it and slice it and dice it and then pass it on to tens and hundreds and thousands and eventually millions of other people,' says Mr Gupta.

 

'This means that I give you a loan but the risk is going to be borne by some dentist in Norway or a pensioner in Bangkok,' he adds. On the plus side, borrowers could tap into the whole global pool of savings. But the psychology of greed kicked in. Freed from risk, the lenders were no longer cautious about who they lent to. And with hedge funds and private equity funds joining the game as alternative intermediaries, the system became opaque and complex.

 

'If you look at the heart of the problem, it really stems from that. You have risk distributed all over the world and it just kept ballooning because the system was so opaque,' says Mr Gupta.

 

So who should take the blame? In Mr Gupta's book, it should be everyone who contributed to the cycle of greed - from the home owner who took loans he could not repay, to the mortgage banker who advanced the loan, the investment banker who sliced and diced these pools of risk and the ratings agencies who looked the other way.

 

Then the music stopped. Mr Gupta still marvels at the sheer speed of the decline. But with the benefit of hindsight, he has concluded that it was inevitable.

 

It started out as a liquidity issue, he says. Since there was too much credit in the system, it had to be sucked out, making investment banks particularly vulnerable. 'Look at the first people who went down: Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, for both of whom it was a liquidity problem since they didn't have their own sources of funding and had to rely on inter-bank markets.' But Mr Gupta had figured that a bank like Citi, with a trillion dollars in deposits, should be safe. He was wrong.

 

The mark-to-market regime kicked in and banks across the world had to start recognising losses as they let markets evaluate the worth of the financial assets on their books. To underline his point, Mr Gupta whips out an elegant Mont Blanc and says: 'Suppose you and I are the only people in this room and you say I'll give you one dollar for this pen, does that mean the pen is worth one dollar? Obviously not. So the problem with fair value accounting is that it assumes a liquid market. And when you don't have liquidity, you might not get a true reflection of the value of your assets.'

 

Nevertheless, banks still had to mark their portfolios down to lower and lower values.

 

'So the problem changed from liquidity to capital adequacy ... people started asking, 'Do you have enough capital, can you withstand the losses?' '

 

Lehman's fall pushed markets over the edge. People who had assumed that the US government would backstop everybody's credit losses panicked. In no time, the issue was not greed but fear.

 

'So interestingly, in terms of what you need to do to unwind the process is just the reverse. You first have to take the fear out of the system and then you have to get the excesses of greed fixed. That's exactly what governments around the world are doing. They turned on the liquidity taps to make sure that no other institution fails because there isn't enough liquidity. They're pumping capital in, recapitalising the banks ... and to the extent that banks still have bad assets, they will create a way to take the assets out, which is what they did in Asia 10 years ago.'

 

The difference, he says, is that while about US$4 billion was needed during the Asian crisis to inject capital and buy out assets, the US situation will call for US$2-3 trillion.

 

Then one day, hopefully, the storm will calm and the crisis will end. But Mr Gupta knows that the past few months have changed the future of his industry and the face of his bank forever.

 

'You know, one of the things that I'm proud of what we did at Citi, and I'm not proud of several things that we did, is that we recognised the losses early. Then we focused on the solutions. We thought we'd better raise capital. It's not easy raising capital at low prices because you're diluting the shareholder, but it's something we had to do. If we hadn't raised capital at that time, we would have gone the AIG way.'

 

Citi's US$2.4 trillion balance sheet has been cut to US$1.9 trillion. Its expense base reduced from US$64 billion to US$50 billion. The management team responsible for the poor risk-taking has been let go. Its global headcount of 375,000 is steadily being pruned and could be reduced to 300,000 by the year's end. Many Citibankers, including Mr Gupta, are poorer than they used to be as the company stock they hold is still hovering around the basement level. Most significantly, the US government's huge infusion of funds means that it can potentially take up a 36 per cent stake in the company.

 

The only way to clamber back is to generate more business, says Mr Gupta. 'Every day we open our shop and people come and put their deposits with us because they trust their money with us,' he says. Despite last year's jitters, the franchise's share of deposits has gone up. 'And we did more investment banking and capital market activities in the first two or three months of this year than we did all of last year,' says Mr Gupta. As the clouds lift, the group could go back to net earnings of US$15 billion a year. The US government's advances to date are in the region of US$45 billion.

 

'So in five years' time there's a realistic possibility that we'll pay off or retire most of this US government stake,' says Mr Gupta.

 

By then, of course, banks might sport a different look, though it is too late to turn the clock back.

 

'There is no doubt in my mind that the compensation in our industry is going to be changed,' says Mr Gupta. 'It will be more aligned to long-term results. Also, a part of me believes that the amount of remuneration that society has paid bankers is quite disproportionate to, say, what is paid to a good teacher or doctor.'

 

The other change could come in the parcelling out of risk. 'You can't go back to the world of 40 years ago, to the days of simpler, gentler banks, but you can put in some safeguards,' he says. 'If I am a lender I may be told that you can only distribute 80 per cent of the risk, but you must keep 20 per cent on your books. That will make me more circumspect.'

 

But risk distribution, itself, must go on, he says. 'It's like when America opened up. It was the Wild West with cowboys and guns but also a land of huge opportunity. Over time, you had to build the roads and the plumbing and put rules in place. In the last 20 years, technology has allowed us to distribute risk is ways we never thought possible. Like the Wild West, we need some rules, we need some traffic signals but it's not right to say that if this doesn't work, let's go back to another world.'

 

rahulp@sph.com.sg

 

PIYUSH GUPTA

CEO, South East Asia Pacific, Citi
Born in 1960 in Meerut, India
Married with two children

Education: BA (Hons) Economics, St Stephen's College, Delhi; Post-graduate diploma in business management, IIM Ahmedabad

Career: Joined Citi in New Delhi in 1982; Held senior positions in Citi's Singapore and London businesses;
Was Citi Country Officer in Indonesia

Left Citi in 2000 to join Go.4i.com, New Delhi

Rejoined in 2001 and served as Citi Country Officer in Malaysia and Singapore before taking over current post in which he is responsible for all of Citi's businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Guam and Asean countries

BTO: Jurong Tech's Tuas factory sold by auction for $3.53m

Business Times - 01 May 2009

Jurong Tech's Tuas factory sold by auction for $3.53m

JURONG Technologies Industrial Corp sold its two-storey Tuas factory for $3.53 million at auction on Wednesday.

 

It is expected to lease back the property, at 18 Tuas West Avenue, for three months before moving its operations elsewhere, BT understands.

 

The buyer is said to be an industrialist who bought the factory for his own use. Bidding began at $3.25 million, and the property was sold after 16 bids.

 

There were two contenders.

 

The factory was put up for auction by Jurong Tech's judicial managers Tam Chee Chong and Keoy Soo Earn of Deloitte & Touche.

 

The factory is on a 75,299 sq ft site with a remaining lease of about 17 years.

 

It was was one of two properties sold at the auction, conducted by Colliers International at Amara Hotel. The other property sold was a 1,970 sq ft freehold apartment on the 13th floor of Orchard Towers in Claymore Road, where a collective sale was once planned.

 

The apartment, with three bedrooms and a study, changed hands for $1.9 million, working out to $964 per sq ft. The buyer is a Singaporean.

 

Separately, Jurong Tech said in a statutory filing with the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on Wednesday that the release of its financial statements for the year ended Dec 31, 2008, has been further postponed to 'no later than July 15, 2009'.

 

This comes after the judicial managers requested a further extension beyond the initial postponement to 'no later than April 30'.

 

Yesterday's statement said the managers are conducting a detailed review and reconciliation of documents with the company's accounting records and consolidated management accounts.

 

'The amount of work required for such review is substantially more than that which is reasonably expected,' the statement said.

 

'In particular, interviews with the remaining accounts and finance staff, as well as the officers of the company, will be required in order to understand the financial position of the company. Greater scrutiny will also be required in the review in order to release the financial statements.'

 

Judicial managers were appointed in February after an unnamed creditor applied to put Jurong Tech under judicial management. The company faces legal demands for repayment of loans from at least six banks, which are claiming a total of more than $200 million.

BTO: MCL books profit on just 5 Fernhill units in Q1

Business Times - 30 Apr 2009

MCL books profit on just 5 Fernhill units in Q1

By KALPANA RASHIWALA

 

HONG Kong Land subsidiary MCL Land, which yesterday posted a 72 per cent year-on-year drop in net profit to US$1.4 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009, said that the buyer of 20 units at The Fernhill project has not made the necessary payment when the project received Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) in March. This confirms a recent BT report.

 

As a result, MCL booked for Q1 the profit for only the five units in the 25-unit freehold project for which buyers have paid the outstanding purchase price by the payment date.

 

MCL Land's policy is to recognise 100 per cent of sales and profits on units sold only when the project receives TOP. However, for Fernhill, it has deferred income recognition for the 20 units because of the outstanding payment.

 

The company, which reported Q1 revenue of US$8.3 million, said that had the purchaser of the 20 units paid up in full, MCL's Q1 revenue and profit would have been US$31 million and US$9.3 million higher respectively.

 

If the buyer of the 20 units - which BT has reported as Concordia Overseas Pte Ltd - fails to pay up by the time a 21-day notice period to repudiate the sale and purchase agreement ends around late-May, MCL would be entited to treat the 20 per cent paid so far as forfeited and resell the units. At that point, MCL can book the 20 per cent as forfeiture income. As and when it resells the freehold apartments, it can book profit on them. If MCL sells at above $1,128 psf ($1,410 psf sale price to Concordia less the 20 per cent collected so far), then the total profit on the 20 units would be higher than the said US$9.3 million. This is likely to be the case given prices being fetched at recent launches in District 10.

 

BT's earlier report said that Concordia, controlled by Hong Kong resident Chan Ki, had bought all 25 apartments in The Fernhill in January 2007 at $1,410 per square foot. Later the same year, it flipped five of these units to foreigners at an average price of nearly $2,200 psf.

 

Market watchers say the outcome for The Fernhill reflects the risk of selling the chunk of units in a project to a single buyer on a deferred payment scheme (DPS), where typically only 10-20 per cent of the purchase price is paid initially, with the bulk due when the project receives TOP. DPS was scrapped in October 2007.

 

MCL has another two projects slated for completion this year - - the 129-unit Tierra Vue condo at St Patrick's Road and Hillcrest Villa, a 163-unit cluster terrace homes development in the Dunearn Road area.

 

These projects have been sold to individuals although a handful of buyers are believed to have purchased two to three units each. For Hillcrest, another factor that should reduce the risk of non-completion of sales is that all the buyers are Singaporeans (the project is classified as landed housing). Property consultants say that property investors, especially foreigners and even if they are permanent residents in some cases, are finding it tough to get housing loans from banks.

 

In February, MCL became the first Singapore-listed developer to book provisions for its residential landbank this market downcycle. It wrote down the value of development properties for sale by US$180.2 million, and this pushed MCL into the red, with a US$107.3 million net loss.

 

The provisions leave MCL with flexibility to launch new projects at an opportune time, generate cash flow and begin a new cycle of profit-booking.

 

MCL Land chairman YK Pang said in yesterday's results statement: 'With strong cash flow generated from the sale of development properties and a healthy balance sheet, the group is well placed to weather the difficult economic and market conditions.'

 

Earnings per share fell from 1.36 US cents in Q1 2008 to 0.38 US cent in Q1 2009.