Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC Bank) says it has entered into a Licence and Development Agreement with United Engineers Limited (UE) to undertake the redevelopment and construction of a hotel cum retail mall at the former Specialists’ Centre and Hotel Phoenix site. Under the arrangement, UE will be appointed the developer for the project and will arrange for sufficient financing to complete the project.

For this purpose, UE has incorporated two special purpose wholly-owned subsidiaries, UE Orchard and UE Somerset to undertake Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the redevelopment works respectively. Both phases are expected to be completed by the second half of 2013.

OCBC has also entered into a Sale and Purchase Agreement with UE for OCBC to purchase the issued shares and outstanding shareholders’ loans in UE Orchard and UE Somerset upon completion of the project. The consideration for the sale will be based on UE Orchard’s and UE Somerset’s net tangible asset (NTA) and the consideration for the shareholders’ loans is the amount of outstanding loans.