SINGAPORE – The market is pondering the fate of at least two good class bungalows (GCBs) belonging to crypto billionaire Zhu Su and his family.
Market sources who are familiar with the GCB sector say that at least one property may be put up for sale in the aftermath of the collapse of his high-profile crypto hedge fund.
One well-placed GCB agent told The Straits Times that he was recently approached to sell the property but had turned the deal down.
According to documents seen by ST, Mr Zhu, the co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, and his family own at least two GCBs here – one in Dalvey Road and another in Yarwood Avenue. They are understood to be residing in a strata landed home owned by Mr Zhu in the Balmoral Road area.
The Singapore-based firm was reportedly served a liquidation order on Monday (June 27) by a court in the British Virgin Islands after it failed to make payments on its loans.
ST understands that the top priority for New York-based advisory firm Teneo, which is handling Three Arrows’ liquidation, is to discharge its duties in accordance with the terms of the liquidation order and protect the assets of the company. Creditors and parties with information pertaining to Three Arrows can visit this website.
Three Arrows was also reprimanded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Thursday for providing false information and exceeding the assets under management threshold allowed for a registered fund management company.
Crypto broker Voyager Digital issued the firm with a default notice on Monday after it failed to make payments on a loan of 15,250 bitcoins (worth about US$324 million or S$451.4 million) and US$350 million worth of USDC, a stablecoin.
Three Arrows’ financial woes have stoked speculation that Mr Zhu’s GCBs may be up for sale. But sources in the GCB market said that while they have heard the market rumours, they were unable to confirm the details.
Also fuelling the speculation is a text message circulating among property agents claiming that “there is a very urgent sale in the market for a GCB in Yarwood right now” and the owners want “to sell fast”.
The property “transacted last year at $48.8M ($1,532 psf)”, it added.
But ST is unable to verify the source and authenticity of the message.
When contacted on Thursday, Mr Zhu’s property agent declined to comment. Attempts to reach Mr Zhu, including through his agent, were unsuccessful.
According to documents, the Dalvey Road bungalow, which sits on a 15,565 sq ft site, was purchased under the name of his wife, Ms Tao Yaqiong, in September 2020 for $28.5 million, which works out to $1,831 per sq ft (psf) for the land area.
The bungalow in Yarwood Avenue, which sits on a 31,854 sq ft 999-year leasehold site in the Kilburn Estate GCB area, was purchased under a trust arrangement by the 35-year-old couple for $48.8 million, which works out to $1,532 psf. The purchase was completed in March this year.
Mr Zhu and his wife were granted an option in December last year to buy the Yarwood property as trustee for a nearly three-year-old child, according to The Business Times.
Mr Karamjit Singh, chief executive of property investment sales firm Delasa, pointed out that “those selling a property within three years of purchase will be subject to seller’s stamp duty (SSD), which in this case, could be 12 per cent SSD, if sold within the first year”.
Mr Zhu and his partner Kyle Davies, both former traders for Credit Suisse Group, started Three Arrows at the kitchen table of their apartment in 2012. At the firm’s height, they were among the world’s biggest crypto holders with a portfolio worth billions of dollars.
In April, Mr Zhu said the fund was planning to move its headquarters to Dubai from Singapore. This was as Dubai opened to crypto firms, while Singapore turned more conservative with its regulatory approach.
Last week, MAS chief fintech officer Sopnendu Mohanty, in an interview with the Financial Times, said the authorities here will be “brutal and unrelentingly hard” on bad behaviour in the crypto industry.
Mr Mohanty was speaking as South Korean prosecutors narrowed in on Singapore-based Terraform Labs, the company behind the collapsed stablecoin TerraUSD and its twin token Luna.
In the aftermath of Luna’s US$40 billion wipe-out, Three Arrows was also plunged into a crisis after failing to meet margin calls.
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