SINGAPORE (Jan 10): Boustead Projects, the specialist in real-estate solutions, announced that its co-investment partnership, the Boustead Development Partnership (BDP), has won a contract to develop a new R&D centre dubbed “Continental Building Phase 3” for Continental Automotive Singapore.

Continental Automotive SG is a R&D hub under Continental Corporation. Continental is one of the world’s top automotive suppliers, with sales of €39.2 billion (S$59.6 billion) in 2015 and around 6% of its sales invested in R&D that year. Continental currently employs more than 218,000 people in 55 countries.

Continental Building Phase 3 will adjoin Continental Automotive SG’s existing Continental Building located at 80 Boon Keng Road within Kallang iPark. The Singapore location is home to one of Continental’s largest R&D centres in Asia. Continental Building Phases 1 and 2 were developed by Boustead Projects under design-build-and-lease arrangements and completed in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

Continental Building Phase 3 will comprise 11,151 sqm of gross floor area (GFA) when completed, with construction expected to start in January 2017 and be completed by calendar year 1Q18.

The BDP is awarding the design-and-build contract for Continental Building Phase 3 to Boustead Projects E&C which is Boustead Projects’ wholly-owned design-and-build subsidiary. This raises Boustead Projects’ order book backlog to S$149 million.

The addition of Continental Building Phase 3 will also bring Boustead Projects’ portfolio of industrial leasehold facilities located within Singapore to 18 properties, with an expected GFA of 239,000 sqm.

The development contract is not expected to have a material impact on the profitability, earnings per share or net tangible asset value per share of the Boustead Projects in the current financial year ending March.

Shares of Boustead Projects closed 1 Singaporean cent higher at 74 cents.