Hongkong Land Holdings is negotiating to buy a majority stake in three buildings on Singapore’s Orchard Road from Hotel Properties, the company controlled by Malaysian tycoon Ong Beng Seng, Bloomberg reported on 14 October, citing people familiar with the matter. A stake sale would probably value the properties at more than S$2 billion ($1.6 billion), although that figure could still move.
The three sites sit next to each other and are earmarked for development: the voco Orchard hotel, the Forum shopping mall and HPL House, which holds Hotel Properties’ headquarters and a Hard Rock Cafe. The people said talks are at an early stage and may end without an agreement.
Neither side would comment. A Hongkong Land spokesperson declined, as did Christopher Lim, group executive director of Hotel Properties, when contacted by phone.
A sale would come as relief for Hotel Properties after a difficult period for its co-founder. Ong was convicted last year in a case that also led to the imprisonment of a senior Singapore politician. He was fined rather than jailed, and he has since stepped down from his decades-long post as managing director, citing medical conditions. Together with his wife Christina, he controls the company through a holding of roughly 60%. Last year the firm was looking to reduce its stakes in only the hotel and the mall; HPL House was added to the package after talks with other parties collapsed.
The trio of buildings won provisional government approval in 2023 to be rebuilt as a mixed scheme with hotel, retail, office and residential space, a rooftop garden and a performance theatre. Some possible partners pulled back, worried about whether the theatre could make money and about years without income during a costly rebuild. At the company’s shareholder meeting in April, Lim said the board was weighing the plan carefully because it would mean giving up recurring income, adding that it was “focused on optimizing development potential with the relevant authorities” and seeking changes to some approved parameters.
Its results have weakened. Hotel Properties swung to a net loss of S$39.1 million in the first half of 2026, against a profit of S$11.4 million a year earlier, and its shares have fallen 6% over the past 12 months while the benchmark Straits Times Index has gained 25%.
For Jardine Matheson-controlled Hongkong Land, the buildings would extend a growing presence on Singapore’s main shopping street. In July, a fund it backs agreed to buy Wheelock Place mall for S$1.1 billion from Wharf Real Estate Investment Co., whose controlling shareholder, Hong Kong billionaire Peter Woo, also owns about a fifth of Hotel Properties.
