Dyson sells Singapore’s tallest penthouse at a loss, just one year after buying it
British billionaire James Dyson, the inventor of the bag less vacuum cleaner, and his wife are selling their three-store Singapore penthouse about a year after buying it for a reported S$74 million ($54million).
Singapore’s Business Times reported that he accepted an offer for $62 million Singapore dollars ($47million; 36 million Euros) from US-based billionaire Leo Koguan. The sale price is lower than the reported purchase price of S$74 million.
The buyer is an Indonesian-born tycoon Leo Koguan, the Business Times newspaper said. The US citizen is chairman and co-founder of info-tech provider SHI International, which counts Boeing and AT&T among its 20,000 customers, business magazine Forbes says.
Perched atop Singapore’s tallest building, the Tanjong Pagar Center, the five bedroom “Super penthouse” is equipped with a 600-bottle wine cellar, fetched about $3,000 per square foot, th e Times said. The apartment, which also includes a pool, Jacuzzi, private lift lobby and a private garden with city views was once valued at S$100 million, making it the city-state’s most expensive penthouse.
The Dyson’s purchase of the Wallich Residence penthouse last year set a record for Singapore penthouse. Before he bought it, the apartment, which overlooks the central business district and the city’s historical shop houses, was listed for S$108 million. The eventual purchase price topped nearly S$60 million paid by Facebook Inc. Co-founder Eduardo Saverin for a penthouse in 2017.
The billionaire has moved his company’s head office to Singapore from Britain to be closer to its fastest-growing markets. Last year, he scrapped plans to build an electric car in Singapore as not being commercially viable. “Dyson remains fully committed to expanding its research and development footprint and other operations in Singapore,” the spokesman added.
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