CIT launches S’pore’s first independent Reit
RETAIL investors will now have an opportunity to subscribe for units in what is touted as Singapore’s first independent industrial real estate investment trust (Reit).
Cambridge Industrial Trust (CIT), which delayed its initial public offering (IPO) last month because of market conditions, registered its prospectus with the Monetary Authority of Singapore yesterday.
Retail investors will have until noon on July 19 to subscribe for six million units of CIT at $0.68 per unit. Depending on whether an over allotment option is exercised or not, investors will get a forecast initial annualised distribution yield of between 7.50 per cent and 7.71 per cent.
Market players said CIT’s international placement of 188.6 million units to institutional investors has been 1.7 times covered.
Finian Tan, chairman of CIT’s manager, Cambridge Industrial Trust Management (CITM), said CIT offers ‘one of the highest yields compared with other Reits in the Singapore market’.
CITM is a joint venture between Cambridge Real Estate Investment Management, Singapore-listed CWT and Japan’s Mitsui.
The development of Singapore’s Reit market to date has been led by Reits whose sponsors are major property developers. Investors like such Reits which offer access to a pipeline of acquisitions.
CIT is not a developer-sponsored Reit but Leong Weng Chee, chief executive officer of CITM, says: ‘Manager’s independence is an advantage in approaching third-party property owners as we do not have any conflicts of interest.’
Mr Leong believes there is scope for CIT to grow via acquisitions. He points out ‘only 12 per cent of the industrial property stock is in Reits’. He adds: ‘Our track record shows that we have assembled 27 properties within a space of nine months.’
CIT has an initial portfolio of 27 properties in Singapore, with a total appraised value of $519 million. This trust, which invests in properties used for industrial and warehousing purposes, intends to explore opportunities in China, Malaysia and Thailand in the short to medium term.
Source : Business Times - 15 Jul 2006
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