Singapore — A Good Class Bungalow (GCB) belonging to Hin Leong Trading founder Lim Oon Kuin, popularly known as OK Lim, sold for a cool $33,388,888 earlier this month.
The oil tycoon, popularly known as OK Lim, found a buyer for his GCB in Ng Poh Choo, the wife of former executive chairman of Cogent Holdings, Tan Yeow Khoon, reported Edgeprop on Oct 19.
The GCB, located in a premier residential area of Second Avenue in Bukit Timah was put up for sale by a private treaty last year.
The property was described by Edgeprop as “a freehold land area of 19,984 sq ft” with “a three-story bungalow with a gross floor area of 10,000 sq ft. It contains five en suite bedrooms, a large swimming pool, and a basement squash court.”
The sale of the GCB had been subject to approval by the liquidators due to Lim’s legal and financial troubles.
Once included in the Top 20 of Singapore’s wealthiest citizens, OK Lim suffered a reversal of fortune of late. He built Singapore’s oil trading giant starting from a single-truck enterprise through the combination of high-risk gambles and hard work, but when oil prices plunged in early 2020, the cracks in his high-risk manner of business began to show.
In April 2020, he filed for bankruptcy, seeking protection from Hin Leong Trading’s creditors.
In November, HSBC sued OK Lim and his two children with the intent of recovering S$115.8 million. And in the following month, the Bank of China asked for a repayment of S$250 million from Lim and his two children.
By May of this year, creditors were able to recover S$359 million from the company.
The High Court was requested by liquidators to freeze up to $4.66 billion in global assets belonging to the Lim family, from multi-million-dollar homes to shares, funds, and country club memberships.
The Second Avenue GCB was bought by Mdm Ng for their family’s use at the price of $1,671 psf, slightly below the guide price of $1,700 psf, Edgeprop quotes Mary Sai, executive director of investment & capital markets at Knight Frank Singapore, as saying.
Knight Frank is the marketing agency responsible for the sale of the GCB.
Ms. Sai also noted that “A lot of the interested parties were relatively young and arrived in their supercars – Rolls Royce, Lamborghinis, and Porsche.
Some came a few times, with their geomancer in tow. These were interested in buying the GCB for their own use.”
/TISG