New | CDL's Aloysius Lee gears up for next challenge after steering S$3 billion project in Singapore
Aloysius Lee has been busy promoting the South Beach integrated development in Singapore, but is now readying for his next challenge as headof CDL's Millennium & Copthorne Hotels arm
Five years ago, Aloysius Lee Tse-sang returned to Singapore from Hong Kong after serving as chief executive of South Beach Consortium, a joint venture formed by City Developments Ltd (CDL) and other parties to head a S$3 billion (HK$17.3 billion) hotel-office-residential-retail development project.
From March, he will be the group's next chief executive in the London-listed hotel arm Millennium & Copthorne Hotels to oversee a portfolio of 120 hotels worldwide. Before joining CDL, Lee (pictured) was the managing director of Shui On Land and also held other senior positions at PCCW, Star Cruises and Singapore Airlines. He was the former chairman of Abacus Hong Kong, the Innovation Marketing Task Force-Singapore Tourism Board, Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents, as well as deputy chairman of the Travel Industry Council, Hong Kong.
Nan Fung was the finance provider for the project at one point during the global financial crisis in late 2008 and 2009.
In 2007, a consortium of CDL, Dubai World's Istithmar Beach Road FZE and Elad Singapore Group won the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore's tender for the 3.5 hectare site at Beach Road, which is close to the Orchard Road tourist hot spot, for S$1.68 billion. During the financial crisis in 2008, the development was held back as the two partners wished to exit their investment. So, Nan Fung was brought in to provide financing. A year or two later, the Malaysian IOI group bought out the shares from the two previous partners. Through a restructuring, the Nan Fung loan was paid off. CDL currently holds 50.1 per cent in the project, while IOI owns the remainder.
