Mapletree poised to list REIT in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Mapletree Investments, the property unit of Singapore state investor Temasek, is poised to list a real estate investment trust (REIT) in Singapore that could hold up to S$4 billion (S$1= RM2.45) in assets, a top executive said.

Chief executive officer Hiew Yoon Khong said last Friday that the listing of the REIT would take place when stock market conditions improved.

"The management team is ready and the filing process is really a two-month job," Hiew said in an interview. "We were actually preparing for the IPO (initial public offering) 16 to 18 months ago, but the market turned."

Hiew said that Mapletree plans to launch a Vietnam property fund and an Asian industrial property fund in the next 12 months and hopes to raise between S$500 million and S$1 billion for each.
Hiew, who is also senior managing director (special projects) at Temasek, said that Mapletree's strategy was to become "a real estate capital management type of business", managing listed and unlisted funds for outside investors.

He said that over the next three to five years, Mapletree hoped to grow its property assets to at least S$20 billion.

By Reuters