Wong & Partners has acted for Malaysian property company S P Setia on its $800 million purchase of rival I&P Group, which was represented by Zainal Abidin & Co.
The deal is set to create one of Malaysia’s biggest real estate firms, reported Reuters.
Both property developers are overseen by state investment fund Permodalan Nasional (PNB), which recently said it plans restructure its core portfolio and rationalise its real estate investments. According to Thomson Reuters data, the fund owns 63.5 percent of S P Setia, while I&P Group is a wholly owned unit of PNB.
According to Reuters, the acquisition comes at a time when the local real estate market has been hit by tighter lending rules and softer purchasing power due to a weaker economy.
Wong & Partners was represented by partner Brian Chia.