SINGAPORE - The lawyer defending Bloomberg in an ongoing defamation trial said on April 8 that an article it ran on high-value property transactions was not targeted at Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam.

Senior Counsel N. Sreenivasan contended that good class bungalow (GCB) transactions are routinely reported by mainstream media, and that issues relating to landed properties are a matter of public interest in Singapore.

The lawyer cited a few high-profile GCB transactions that were reported in The Straits Times.

They include the sale of a Cluny Hill bungalow that was owned by Dr Lee Wei Ling, daughter of the founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, to Mr Shi Yonghong, the co-founder of hot pot chain Haidilao, for $50 million.

He also cited the sale of a bungalow in Nassim Road to the wife of the founder of Nanofilm Technologies International, a local nanotechnology solutions company.

Ms Jin Xiao Qun had bought the property from businesswoman Oei Siu Hoa, also known as Sukmawati Widjaja, for $128.8 million.

During cross-examination in the High Court trial, Mr Shanmugam, who is also Home Affairs Minister, agreed that such transactions are sometimes reported, but added that one would have to look at the context of each deal.

He added that he could not recall a transaction being reported a year after it took place.

Mr Shanmugam and Manpower Minister Tan See Leng have