Global rotation into comparatively more cyclical Sectors sensitive to trade developments saw Singapore’s 35 REITs and 6 stapled trusts average just a 1% total return in October, taking their average total return for the first 10 months of 2019 to 24%.
In October, 5 REITs issued S$940 million in new units pursuant to secondary fund raising activities. This followed placements by Mapletree Commercial Trust and Keppel Pacific Oak US REIT and rights issue offerings by Keppel DC REIT, Manulife US REIT & ESR-REIT.
The 5 REITs that maintained the most increases in their relative trading turnover and generated positive total returns in October were Manulife US REIT, Mapletree Commercial REIT, Ascott Residence Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust and IREIT Global.
Singapore’s 35 REITs and 6 stapled trusts averaged a 1% total return in October, taking their average total return for the first 10 months of 2019 to 24%.
Globally, REITs have outpaced benchmarks this year, with the trend of lower interest rates for much of 2019 supporting the comparative appeal of REIT yields to investors, while at the same time reducing REIT managers’ outlook for debt servicing costs. However, as discussed here, during October the 10 year UST yields did move higher over the final three weeks of October, bouncing from 1.50% lows in the first week of October to end the month at 1.69%.
5 S-REITs Listed S$940 Million in New Units in October
Coinciding with opportunities to grow their property portfolios, S-REITs have continued to raise significant capital through completion of secondary fundraising activities in October. The S-REITs saw approximately S$560 million raised in placements and S$380 million raised via rights issues that saw new units commence trading in October.
October saw the trading of new units in Mapletree Commercial Trust and Keppel Pacific Oak US REIT that were both pursuant to secondary fundraising through placements. These placements saw Mapletree Commercial Trust raise S$458 million and Keppel Pacific Oak US REIT raise US$76 million (S$103 million).
New units also commenced trading for Keppel DC REIT, Manulife US REIT and ESR-REIT pursuant to rights issues. These rights issues saw Keppel DC REIT raise S$243 million, Manulife US REIT raise US$63 million (S$86 million) and ESR-REIT raise S$50 million.
In addition, Mapletree Logistics Trust launched and closed a private placement raising S$250 million in October, that was over 13 times covered. The trading of new units in Mapletree Logistics Trust commenced on November 1 and hence is additional to the aforementioned listing of S$940 million in new units following REIT secondary fundraising in October. Ascendas REIT also launched a S$1.3 billion rights issue on November 1 – more details can be found here.
October S-REIT Highlights
In Singapore the current 35 REITs and 6 stapled trusts listed for trading in Singapore have seen net institutional inflows of S$210 million over the first 10 months of 2019.
Within the Sector, Ascott Residence Trust, Ascendas REIT, CapitaLand Commercial Trust, Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust and Ascendas Hospitality Trust recorded the highest net institutional inflows for the first 10 months of 2019.
Ascott REIT was also amongst the 5 REITs that generated positive returns for October and also saw the biggest increase in their October trading turnover relative to the past 10 months of 2019. The other 4 REITs were Manulife US REIT, Mapletree Commercial REIT, Mapletree Industrial Trust and IREIT Global.
IREIT Global was also amongst the 5 top performing REITs in October, along with SPH REIT, Far East Hospitality Trust, Ascendas Hospitality Trust and Mapletree Logistics Trust.
Lendlease Commercial REIT, with a portfolio consisting of the three-building Sky Complex in Milan and 313 @ Somerset, listed on SGX on October 2. The REIT listed with 13 cornerstone investors including AEW Asia Pte Ltd, funds and accounts under management by investment management subsidiaries of BlackRock, Inc, Fullerton Fund Management Company Ltd, Lion Global Investors Limited, Nikko Asset Management Asia Limited, Principal Asset Management (S) Pte Ltd and TMB Asset Management Co., Ltd.
The 35 REITs and 6 Stapled Trusts are tabled below and sort by market capitalisation, which totalled S$108 billion as of October 31. The average price-to-book (“P/B”) ratio for Singapore’s current 35 REITs and six stapled trusts is 1.08x, up from the combined five year average of 1.02x.
| REIT or Stapled Trust | SGX Code |
Mkt Cap S$M |
Oct Total Return % |
10M Total Return % |
Oct Net Insti Inflow S$M |
10M Net Insti Inflow S$M |
REIT Sector Oct T/O Rank |
REIT Sector YTD T/O Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASCENDAS REAL ESTATE INV TRT | A17U | 9,867 | 1.6 | 26.7 | -8 | 55 | 1 | 1 |
| CAPITALAND MALL TRUST | C38U | 9,369 | -2.3 | 17.1 | -23 | -18 | 3 | 3 |
| CAPITALAND COMMERCIAL TRUST | C61U | 7,907 | -1.0 | 22.7 | 1 | 51 | 5 | 2 |
| MAPLETREE COMMERCIAL TRUST | N2IU | 7,215 | 3.3 | 48.7 | -3 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| MAPLETREE LOGISTICS TRUST | M44U | 6,115 | 5.4 | 41.2 | 1 | 38 | 4 | 4 |
| MAPLETREE INDUSTRIAL TRUST | ME8U | 5,611 | 4.9 | 41.1 | 1 | 19 | 7 | 8 |
| SUNTEC REIT | T82U | 5,210 | -0.9 | 10.1 | -22 | -35 | 6 | 6 |
| KEPPEL REIT | K71U | 4,116 | -2.9 | 11.1 | -9 | 38 | 12 | 11 |
| MNACT | RW0U | 4,080 | -3.0 | 17.4 | -22 | 5 | 9 | 7 |
| KEPPEL DC REIT | AJBU | 3,259 | 4.7 | 59.6 | -3 | 11 | 11 | 10 |
| FRASERS CENTREPOINT TRUST | J69U | 3,073 | 1.4 | 33.2 | 3 | 13 | 15 | 12 |
| ASCOTT RESIDENCE TRUST | A68U | 3,004 | 4.5 | 35.7 | 11 | 76 | 14 | 13 |
| SPH REIT | SK6U | 2,962 | 5.9 | 20.1 | 4 | 6 | 27 | 29 |
| OUE COMMERCIAL REIT | TS0U | 2,904 | 0.0 | 24.4 | 7 | 25 | 29 | 32 |
| FRASERS LOGISTICS & IND TRUST | BUOU | 2,834 | 1.6 | 28.7 | 4 | 45 | 13 | 9 |
| CDL HOSPITALITY TRUSTS * | J85 | 1,987 | 0.0 | 18.8 | -2 | -2 | 17 | 16 |
| PARKWAYLIFE REIT | C2PU | 1,978 | 4.5 | 28.6 | 3 | 14 | 26 | 24 |
| CROMWELL EUROPEAN REIT | CNNU | 1,948 | 0.6 | 20.0 | -1 | -22 | 25 | 19 |
| ESR-REIT | J91U | 1,863 | 3.1 | 13.3 | 12 | 14 | 20 | 15 |
| MANULIFE US REAL ESTATE INV | BTOU | 1,858 | 1.2 | 29.7 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 20 |
| CAPITALAND RETAIL CHINA TRUST | AU8U | 1,832 | -0.7 | 20.6 | -6 | -9 | 21 | 17 |
| STARHILL GLOBAL REIT | P40U | 1,614 | -0.7 | 13.8 | -5 | 33 | 30 | 23 |
| FRASERS COMMERCIAL TRUST | ND8U | 1,497 | 3.4 | 27.4 | -3 | 8 | 18 | 14 |
| FAR EAST HOSPITALITY TRUST * | Q5T | 1,405 | 5.8 | 25.9 | 5 | 5 | 28 | 26 |
| FRASERS HOSPITALITY TRUST * | ACV | 1,392 | 2.8 | 8.3 | 0 | -8 | 34 | 35 |
| ASCENDAS HOSPITALITY TRUST * | Q1P | 1,308 | 5.5 | 54.7 | 11 | 45 | 22 | 25 |
| PRIME US REIT | OXMU | 1,169 | -1.6 | N/A | 0 | 3 | 36 | 41 |
| LENDLEASE GLOBAL COMMERCIAL | JYEU | 1,110 | N/A | N/A | -21 | -21 | 8 | 28 |
| AIMS APAC REIT | O5RU | 955 | -4.9 | 8.8 | -40 | -26 | 10 | 22 |
| SASSEUR REIT | CRPU | 949 | 0.0 | 33.6 | -3 | -27 | 32 | 31 |
| KEPPEL PACIFIC OAK US REIT | CMOU | 938 | -3.6 | 33.6 | -5 | -5 | 23 | 30 |
| FIRST REAL ESTATE INVT TRUST | AW9U | 811 | 1.0 | 10.3 | -7 | -69 | 24 | 21 |
| CACHE LOGISTICS TRUST | K2LU | 784 | -2.0 | 10.6 | -2 | 3 | 33 | 27 |
| LIPPO MALLS INDONESIA RETAIL | D5IU | 695 | 4.3 | 40.7 | 0 | -4 | 38 | 36 |
| ARA US HOSPITALITY TRUST * | XZL | 667 | -3.3 | N/A | 1 | 25 | 40 | 37 |
| EAGLE HOSPITALITY TRUST * | LIW | 662 | -17.7 | N/A | -24 | -49 | 16 | 18 |
| SOILBUILD BUSINESS SPACE REIT | SV3U | 636 | -3.9 | -5.5 | 0 | -4 | 31 | 34 |
| EC WORLD REIT | BWCU | 582 | 0.0 | 12.4 | -4 | -33 | 35 | 33 |
| IREIT GLOBAL | UD1U | 506 | 5.3 | 18.3 | 1 | 10 | 37 | 40 |
| SABANA SHARIAH COMP IND REIT | M1GU | 484 | 1.1 | 23.8 | 0 | 17 | 39 | 39 |
| BHG RETAIL REIT | BMGU | 355 | 0.0 | 4.3 | 0 | -20 | 41 | 38 |
| Average | 0.6 | 24.0 |
* Note Stapled Trust. The expected date for commencement of trading of Ascott REIT-BT Stapled Units (on a stapled basis) and consideration units is 2 January 2020.
Source: SGX, Bloomberg, Refinitiv, SGX StockFacts (Data as of 31 October 2019)
