Royale Chulan Bukit Bintang sale yet to be approved — Mindef official

KUALA LUMPUR (March 21): The conditions for the sale of the Royale Chulan Bukit Bintang Hotel have yet to be fulfilled and as such the hotel still belongs to Boustead Holdings Bhd, a ministry of defence (Mindef) official said yesterday.

Amin Shah Iskandar, press secretary to the defence minister, said the hotel’s prospective buyer, Singapore-based Hotel Royal Ltd, has not received clearance from the economic planning unit of the Prime Minister’s Department to go through the sale.

The buyer has also yet to obtain the approval of the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur Working Committee on Land, and meet the listing requirements of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd, he said.

“All of these conditions have yet to be fulfilled and, therefore, the Royale Chulan Bukit Bintang Hotel remains owned by Boustead,” said Amin in a statement. He added that even if one of these conditions is not satisfied, the sale would not proceed.

On March 15, Boustead said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia that it had inked an agreement to sell the 418-room four-star hotel to Hotel Royal for RM197 million. The company said the sale was subject to certain conditions.

Amin said Boustead, a subsidiary of the Armed Forces Fund Board, has been following procedures with regard to the sale, as it does not want to repeat the conduct of the former government, especially pertaining to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.

Shares in Boustead Holdings Bhd closed unchanged at RM1.35 yesterday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM2.74 billion.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 21, 2019.

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