Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has approached banks to finance $2 Million for its purchase of Asia Square 1 of Singapore. The announcement of the deal was made a week before.
The sources on the condition of anonymity revealed that the sovereign wealth fund has held preliminary talks with banks to borrow between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. Talks with potential lenders are at an early stage and QIA has not finalized the timeline for the borrowing, they said.
QIA announced an agreement to purchase the 43- story retail and office building from BlackRock last week for S$3.4 billion, this being the biggest office transaction in Singapore.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, had to settle for a lower price than it had originally anticipated for the 43-story tower, whose tenants include Citigroup Inc and KKR & Co, as rents in the city state decline amid slowing economic growth and rising supply.
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, specializing in domestic and foreign investment manages investments for the natural gas-rich nation. It has invested about US$38 billion in property around the world, with US$21.7 billion in office transactions and US$7.5 billion for hotels, including the 2014 purchase of the St Regis Rome, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc.
