On 24/05/2013,
you requested for the version in force on 24/05/2013
incorporating all amendments published on or before 24/05/2013.
The closest version currently available is that of 23/02/2009.
96. The principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after section 295, the following sections:
295A.
—(1) Where an arrangement or a contract involving the transfer of all of the units, or all of the units in any particular class, in a real estate investment trust (referred to in this section as the subject trust), to —
(a)
the trustee of another trust (including the trustee-manager of a business trust and the trustee of another real estate investment trust); or
(b)
a corporation,
referred to in this section as the transferee has, within 4 months after the making of the offer in that behalf by the transferee, been approved as to the units or as to each class of units whose transfer is involved by participants of the subject trust holding no less than 90% of the total number of those units or of the units of that class (other than units already held at the date of the offer by the transferee), the transferee may, at any time within 2 months after the offer has been so approved, give notice in the prescribed manner to any dissenting participant of the subject trust that it desires to acquire his units.
(2) When a notice referred to in subsection (1) is given, the transferee shall, unless on an application made by a dissenting participant within one month from the date on which the notice was given or within 14 days of a statement being supplied to a dissenting participant under subsection (3) (whichever is the later) a court thinks fit to order otherwise, be entitled and bound to acquire those units —
(a)
on the terms which under the arrangement or contract the units of the approving participants are to be transferred to the transferee; or
(b)
if the offer contained 2 or more alternative sets of terms, on the terms which were specified in the offer as being applicable to dissenting participants.
(3) Where a transferee has given notice to any dissenting participant of the subject trust that it desires to acquire his units, the dissenting participant shall be entitled to require the transferee by a demand in writing served on the transferee, within one month from the date on which the notice was given, to supply him with a statement in writing of the names and addresses of all other dissenting participants as shown in the register of participants of the subject trust; and the transferee shall not be entitled or bound to acquire the units of the dissenting participants until 14 days after the posting of the statement of such names and addresses to the dissenting participant.
(4) Where, pursuant to any such arrangement or contract, units in the subject trust are transferred to the transferee or its nominee and those units together with any other units in the subject trust held by the transferee at the date of the transfer comprise or include 90% of the total number of the units in the subject trust or of any class of those units, then —
(a)
the transferee shall within one month from the date of the transfer (unless on a previous transfer pursuant to the arrangement or contract it has already complied with this requirement) give notice of that fact in the prescribed manner to the participants of the subject trust holding the remaining units in, or the remaining units of that class of units in, the subject trust who have not assented to the arrangement or contract; and
(b)
any such participant may within 3 months from receiving the notice require the transferee to acquire his units.
(5) Where a participant has given notice under subsection (4)(b) with respect to any units, the transferee shall be entitled and bound to acquire those units —
(a)
on the terms on which under the arrangement or contract the units of the approving participants were transferred to it; or
(b)
on such other terms as are agreed or as the court on the application of either the transferee or the participant thinks fit to order.
(6) Where a notice has been given by the transferee under subsection (1) and a court has not, on an application made by the dissenting participant, ordered to the contrary, the transferee shall —
(a)
after the expiration of one month after the date on which the notice has been given;
(b)
after 14 days after a statement has been supplied to a dissenting participant under subsection (3); or
(c)
if an application to the court by the dissenting participant is then pending, after that application has been disposed of,
transmit a copy of the notice to the trustee of the subject trust together with an instrument of transfer executed on behalf of the participant by any person appointed by the transferee and on its own behalf by the transferee, and pay, allot or transfer to the trustee of the subject trust the amount or other consideration representing the price payable by the transferee for the units which by virtue of this section the transferee is entitled to acquire, and the trustee of the subject trust shall thereupon register the transferee as the holder of those units.
(7) Any sums received by the trustee of the subject trust under this section shall be paid into a separate bank account, and any such sums and any other consideration so received shall be held by that trustee in trust for the several persons who had held the units in respect of which they were respectively received.
(8) Where any consideration other than cash is held in trust by the trustee of the subject trust for any person under this section, the trustee may, after the expiration of 2 years from, and shall, before the expiration of 10 years from, the date on which such consideration was allotted or transferred to him, transfer such consideration to the Official Receiver.
(9) The Official Receiver shall sell or dispose of any consideration so received in such manner as he thinks fit and shall deal with the proceeds of such sale or disposal in accordance with section 295B.
(10) In determining the units in the subject trust already held by the transferee at the date of the offer under subsection (1) or the percentage of the total number of units in the subject trust or of any class of those units held by the transferee under subsection (4), units held or acquired —
(a)
by a nominee on behalf of the transferee;
(b)
where the transferee is a corporation, by its related corporation or by a nominee of the related corporation;
(c)
where the transferee is the trustee-manager of a business trust or the trustee of a real estate investment trust —
(i)
by a person who controls more than 50% of the voting power in the business trust or real estate investment trust, or by a nominee of that person;
(ii)
by the trustee-manager of the business trust on its own account, or by the manager for the real estate investment trust, or by a nominee of the trustee-manager or manager; or
(iii)
by a related corporation of the trustee-manager for the business trust or the manager for the real estate investment trust or by a nominee of that related corporation; or
(d)
where the transferee is the trustee of a trust that is not a business trust or real estate investment trust, by a related corporation of the trustee (being a corporation) or by a nominee of that related corporation,
shall be treated as held or acquired by the transferee.
(11) For the avoidance of doubt, in this section —
(a)
a reference to a transferee (being the trustee of a trust) holding, acquiring or contracting to acquire units in another trust is a reference to his doing any of these as trustee of the first-mentioned trust; and
(b)
a reference to a transfer of units of a trust to a transferee (being the trustee of another trust) is a reference to such transfer of units to him as trustee of that other trust.
(12) The reference in subsection (1) to units already held by the transferee —
(a)
includes a reference to units which the transferee has contracted to acquire; but
(b)
excludes units which are the subject of a contract binding the holder thereof to accept the offer when it is made, being a contract entered into by the holder for no consideration and under seal or for no consideration other than a promise by the transferee to make the offer.
(13) Where, during the period within which an offer for the transfer of units to the transferee can be approved, the transferee acquires or contracts to acquire any of the units whose transfer is involved but otherwise than by virtue of the approval of the offer, then the transferee may be treated for the purposes of this section as having acquired or contracted to acquire those units by virtue of the approval of the offer if, and only if —
(a)
the consideration for which the units are acquired or contracted to be acquired (referred to in this subsection as the acquisition consideration) does not at that time exceed the consideration specified in the terms of the offer; or
(b)
those terms are subsequently revised so that when the revision is announced the acquisition consideration, at the time referred to in paragraph (a), no longer exceeds the consideration specified in those terms.
(14) In this section and sections 295B and 295C —
“dissenting participant” includes a participant who has not assented to the arrangement or contract and any participant who has failed or refused to transfer his units to the transferee in accordance with the arrangement or contract;
“Official Receiver” means the Official Assignee appointed under the Bankruptcy Act (Cap. 20) and includes his deputy and any person appointed as Assistant Official Assignee;
“real estate investment trust” means a collective investment scheme that is —
(a)
authorised under section 286 or recognised under section 287; and
(b)
a trust that invests primarily in real estate and real estate-related assets specified by the Authority in the Code on Collective Investment Schemes and all or any of the units of which are listed for quotation on a securities exchange.
295B.
—(1) The Official Receiver who receives moneys arising from the proceeds of a sale or disposal under section 295A shall place the moneys to the credit of a separate account to be entitled the Compulsory Acquisition of Scheme Account.
(2) The interest arising from the investment of the moneys standing to the credit of the Compulsory Acquisition of Scheme Account shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.
(3) If any person makes any demand for any money placed to the credit of the Compulsory Acquisition of Scheme Account, the Official Receiver, upon being satisfied that that person is entitled to the money, shall authorise payment thereof to be made to him out of that Account or, if it has been paid into the Consolidated Fund, may authorise payment of a like amount to be made to him out of moneys made available by Parliament for the purpose.
(4) Any person dissatisfied with the decision of the Official Receiver in respect of a claim made pursuant to subsection (3) may appeal to a court which may confirm, disallow or vary the decision.
(5) Where any unclaimed moneys paid to a person pursuant to subsection (3) are afterwards claimed by any other person, that other person shall not be entitled to any payment out of the Compulsory Acquisition of Scheme Account or out of the Consolidated Fund but such other person may have recourse against the first-mentioned person to whom the unclaimed moneys have been paid.
(6) Any unclaimed moneys paid to the credit of the Compulsory Acquisition of Scheme Account to the extent to which the unclaimed moneys have not been under this section paid out of that Account shall, upon the lapse of 7 years from the date of the payment of the moneys to the credit of that Account, be paid into the Consolidated Fund.
295C.
—(1) Any participant of a real estate investment trust may apply to a court for an order under this section on the ground —
(a)
that the affairs of the trust are being conducted by the manager or trustee for the trust, or the powers of the directors of the manager or directors of the trustee for the trust are being exercised, in a manner oppressive to one or more of the participants of the trust including himself or in disregard of his or their interests as participants of the trust; or
(b)
that some act of the manager or trustee for the trust, carried out in its capacity as manager or trustee for the trust, as the case may be, has been done or is threatened or that some resolution of the participants of the trust or any class of them has been passed or is proposed which unfairly discriminates against or is otherwise prejudicial to one or more of the participants of the trust including himself.
(2) If on such application the court is of the opinion that either of the grounds referred to in subsection (1) is established, the court may, with a view to bringing to an end to or remedying the matters complained of, make such order as it thinks fit and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the order may —
(a)
direct or prohibit any act or cancel or vary any transaction or resolution;
(b)
regulate the conduct of the affairs of the manager or trustee for the trust in relation to the trust in future;
(c)
authorise civil proceedings against the directors of the manager or directors of the trustee for the trust to be brought in the name of or on behalf of all the participants of the trust as a whole by such person or persons and on such terms as the court may direct;
(d)
provide for the purchase of the units in the trust by other participants of the trust;
(e)
provide that the trust be wound up; or
(f)
provide that the costs and expenses of and incidental to the application for the order are to be raised and paid out of the property of the trust or to be borne and paid in such manner and by such persons as the court deems fit.
(3) Where an order under this section makes any alteration in or addition to the trust deed of any trust, then, notwithstanding anything in any other provision of this Act but subject to the provisions of the order, the manager or trustee of the trust concerned shall not have power, without the leave of the court, to make any further alteration in or addition to the trust deed that is inconsistent with the provisions of the order; but subject to the foregoing provisions of this subsection the alterations or additions made by the order shall have the same effect as if duly made by special resolution of the participants of the trust.
(4) A copy of any order made under this section shall be lodged by the applicant with the Authority within 7 days after the making of the order.
(5) Any person who contravenes subsection (4) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding $1,000 for every day or part thereof during which the offence continues after conviction.
(6) This section shall apply to a person who is not a participant of a trust but to whom units in the trust have been transmitted by operation of law as it applies to the participants of a trust; and references to a participant or participants shall be construed accordingly.”.