Eindhoven High Tech Campus sold to Singapore State, not U.S. investor: report

The new owner of the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven is the Singaporean State and not United States investment firm Oaktree. The campus sale to Oaktree was completed on Monday, but the money came from Singapore, Eindhovens Dagblad reported.

The name GIC Private Limited - formerly Government of Singapore Investment Cooperation - emerged as a party that wants to take over the Eindhoven campus in a report from the Dutch Authority for Consumer and Markets (ACM). Campus director Jan-Willem Neggers explained to the newspaper that Oaktree is the manager of the mutual fund that now owns the High Tech Campus. GIC is the principal investor in that mutual fund. 

GIC has more than 700 billion euros in investments, ten offices, and 18,000 employees worldwide, according to the newspaper. When the ACM approved the acquisition, it looked at how many real estate interests GIC already has in the Netherlands. And that turned out to be relatively limited.

The Singaporean State has a 3 percent interest in the Dutch real estate fund Euro Commercial Properties, mainly active in shopping centers. It also has shares in the CitizenM hotel chain, which has hotels at Schiphol and in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Oaktree expressed grand ambitions for the High Tech Campus in a statement announcing the completion of the sale on Monday. "We can add 5,000 to the current 12,000 employees in due course. The campus must be the first choice for research and development-oriented companies that want to excel."

How much of a difference it makes that the campus is now in the hands of the Singaporean State instead of an American investor remains to be seen. For Neggers, it makes no difference, he said to Eindhovens Dagblad. Eindhoven alderman Stijn Steenbakkers told the newspaper the city is "happy to discuss" safeguarding the campus ecosystem "with the new owner.