Lim Chap Huat sues Brookfield over aborted Singapore joint venture

Brookfield says claims over failed Singapore property deal lack merit

The lawsuit, filed Monday to Singapore’s High Court, names Lim, Soilbuild and a Soilbuild subsidiary as claimants, and lists Brookfield, its Singapore arm and a Brookfield-controlled entity as defendants. It alleges that Brookfield had agreed with Soilbuild to pursue the acquisition through a joint venture, and that Brookfield called off the proposed venture just two days before Mapletree announced it was selling the properties to Brookfield.

The dispute centers on a 2025 transaction in which Brookfield bought three properties from Mapletree Industrial Trust, a real-estate investment trust, for more than $400 million. Soilbuild says it carried out a large amount of due diligence for the proposed deal at Brookfield’s request, and claims Brookfield made use of Soilbuild’s know-how, findings and suggestions in its successful bid.

According to the lawsuit, Brookfield approached Soilbuild in December 2024 with a proposal to work together on a bid to buy commercial assets from Mapletree. Brookfield had not made any property deal in Singapore at that point, and wanted a local partner to help navigate the market, Soilbuild said.

Soilbuild said it had drafted with Brookfield a memorandum of understanding on how the joint venture would operate. Though the memorandum was never signed, Soilbuild alleged both sides proceeded with preparatory work for the Mapletree deal on the basis of terms laid out in the draft, and that Brookfield and Soilbuild’s representatives repeatedly referred to terms “agreed” in the draft as they negotiated transaction documents.

Under Singapore law, a valid contract can be formed through conduct, meaning parties can be deemed to have agreed a contract through their actions even if they never formally signed a document. The lawsuit alleges the parties’ conduct “showed that there was a binding agreement in accordance with the terms of the MOU.”

In May 2025, Brookfield informed Soilbuild it would proceed with the Mapletree acquisition on its own. Two days later, Mapletree announced it had agreed to sell to Brookfield two business parks and an industrial building complex for 535.3 million Singapore dollars, or about $418.9 million. Lim and Soilbuild are seeking unspecified damages for the alleged breach and the allegedly unauthorized use of proprietary information.

“We consider these claims to be completely without merit and will be defending the proceedings vigorously,” a Brookfield spokesperson said. “We are disappointed that an organization like Brookfield has acted in the way they did in their first acquisition in Singapore, and we have been left with no choice but to commence this action,” Soilbuild Group director Lim Han Qin, a son of the executive chairman, said. He declined to comment further, citing ongoing court proceedings. Mapletree Industrial Trust, which isn’t a party to the lawsuit, declined to comment.

Lim Chap Huat co-founded Soilbuild in 1976 as a construction contractor before expanding into developing residential and commercial real estate and managing industrial properties. Forbes has tracked Lim on its Singapore’s 50 richest list for more than a decade, estimating his net worth at around $1.6 billion as of July.