Heeton Holdings

A consortium led by real estate firm Heeton Holdings has bought the Dry Bar, an iconic entertainment venue in a vibrant part of Manchester in Britain, with plans to turn it into a hotel.

Heeton has teamed up with construction and property firm KSH Holdings and Ryobi Kiso Holdings, which provides ground engineering solutions, they said in a joint statement yesterday.

They have set up Treasure Choice Enterprises, a joint venture between Heeton, KSH and Mchester Development, which is a 40 per cent associated company of Ryobi Kiso.

Heeton holds an effective interest of 50 per cent, while the rest have a 25 per cent stake each.

The property is a four-storey terraced building with one basement level. It has a total gross internal floor area of about 20,700 sq ft.

Planning permission was granted in 2015 to convert the upper floors of the building into a hotel, said the firms.

Singapore Press Holdings

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) said it has a loan agreement with OCBC Bank for an unsecured term loan facility of $280 million, with a tenure of four years.

The funds are for Times Properties to provide shareholders' contributions to units Elara 1 and Callisto 1.

SPH had announced the award of the tender of a site in Upper Serangoon Road by the Housing Board to Elara 1 and Callisto 1 on June 21.

SPH and Kajima Development each own 50 per cent of the units. A mixed commercial and residential development will be built on the site.

Sapphire Corporation

Mainboard-listed Sapphire Corporation has won a 276 million yuan (S$57 million) rail engineering contract for the second phase of the Beijing Metro's Changping Line.

Ranken Railway Construction Group - Sapphire's engineering, procurement and construction subsidiary - will undertake civil engineering works for part of the 12.6km, 12-station Changping Line South Extension.

The contract is scheduled to be complete by Dec 31, 2020.