Soilbuild, its executive chairman Lim and a Soilbuild subsidiary are named as claimants while New York-based Brookfield, its Singapore unit and a Brookfield-controlled entity are defendants, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing documents filed with the city-state’s High Court last week.
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Lim Chap Huat, co-founder of Soilbuild Group. Photo from the company’s annual report |
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages over alleged breaches of contract and confidentiality, among other claims, in relation to Brookfield’s May 2025 acquisition of three industrial properties in Singapore from Mapletree Industrial Trust for the aforementioned amount.
Brookfield had allegedly sought to partner with Soilbuild on the acquisition as a joint venture and spent months working with the Singaporean firm to put together a deal.
The asset manager then allegedly drew on Soilbuild’s know-how, findings and suggestions when bidding on the properties, but called off the planned joint venture just days before Mapletree announced the transaction.
“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,” said Lim Han Qin, Soilbuild Group director and Lim’s son, as quoted by the WSJ.
A Brookfield spokesperson has dismissed the claims as “completely without merit.”
The court documents claim Brookfield and Soilbuild had drafted a memorandum of understanding outlining their proposed joint venture. The memorandum was not signed, but Soilbuild alleges both sides proceeded with preparatory work for the Mapletree deal based on its terms.
Singapore law allows contracts to be formed through conduct, meaning parties can be considered to have agreed to a contract through their actions and behavior even without a signed document.
The lawsuit says Soilbuild conducted extensive due diligence at Brookfield’s request and was not reimbursed for fees paid to third-party vendors for technical assessments.
Brookfield then allegedly told Soilbuild it would pursue the Mapletree acquisition on its own, two days before Mapletree announced the transaction.
Brookfield Asset Management is a global alternative asset manager overseeing more than $1 trillion in assets across infrastructure, energy, private equity, real estate and credit, according to the company’s website.
It entered Singapore in 2014, making the city-state a hub for partnerships with investors in its global strategies, before setting up a dedicated real estate investment team in 2023. Following the Mapletree deal, it bought eight other industrial and logistics properties in the city-state for S$338.1 million in December 2025.
The firm plans to expand its real estate investments in Singapore and aims to triple its assets under management across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East over the medium term, The Business Times reported last month.
Soilbuild, meanwhile, was co-founded by Lim as a small construction company in 1976. Before that, Lim, the son of a rickshaw driver, had worked part-time as a math tutor while in school and studied civil engineering at a polytechnic.
Lim later expanded Soilbuild into residential property development and eventually business parks and industrial buildings.
He was featured in Forbes’ list of the 50 richest people in Singapore last September. His current net worth is estimated at US$1.6 billion.