Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are an asset class that investors in Singapore are highly interested in. The opportunity to own properties, not only in Singapore, but the rest of the world is enticing. This is coupled with relatively high yields – returning close to 6.5% per annum in distributions currently. Since the launch of CapitaLand Mall Trust, the first Singapore-listed REIT, in 2002, Singapore has gone on to see its REITs and business trusts market grow in breath and depth, to a combined market capitalisation of close to $100 billion today. Read Also: Investing in Property VS REITS: Which is Better The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has attracted REIT and business trust listings not only from Singapore but Europe, USA, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, India, and Aust

Alpha fund, CDL tie-up put two office assets on the market AIMING to cash in on the upturn in the Singapore office market, Alpha Investment Partners and City Developments Ltd (CDL) are understood to have put Manulife Centre in Bras Basah Road, and 7 & 9 Tampines Grande up for sale through separate expressions of interest exercises. The total price tag of the two assets exceeds S$1 billion, The Business Times understands. The vendors are looking at prices in excess of S$550 million for Manulife Centre, which works to about S$2,270 per square foot based on the 11-storey commercial building’s net lettable area (NLA) of about 242,000 sq ft. The building has retail space on street level and offices above. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Mapletree partners major

CDL Hospitality Trusts (SGX: J85) is a stapled trust that consists of a business trust and a real estate investment trust. It is the first hospitality-focused trust listed in Singapore’s stock market. Its portfolio consists of 15 hotels, two resorts, and one retail mall located across seven countries, and they include prominent hotels in Singapore such as Orchard Hotel, M Hotel, and Novotel Clark Quay, as well as overseas hotels such as Mercure Perth in Australia and Hotel MyStays Kamata in Japan. Since its listing in 2006, CDL Hospitality Trusts has grown the value of its portfolio of assets from four hotels worth S$846 million to its current portfolio that is worth more than S$2.6 billion. But despite its long-term track record of growth, its recent business performance has been somewh

Singapore is a tourist hotspot. The number of tourist arrivals in 2017, climbed to 17.4 million and to lift the total tourism receipts to $26.8 billion. Inherently, the burgeoning middle-class in China and our neighbouring countries bodes a positive outlook on the long-term growth of our hospitality sector. Despite that, 1Q18 is rather an uninspiring quarter for the hospitality sector, as Revenue Per Average Room only registered low to mid-single digit growth, according to OCBC. So how would local hospitality stocks perform in the rest of the year? Gains From Operations Priced In According to OCBC, rising margins from better operational efficiency seemed to have already been priced in for many of hospitality REITs. As a result, there seem to be no key catalysts for hospitality stocks to

CDL Hospitality Trusts (SGX:J85), or CDLHT, was the first hospitality trust to be listed in Singapore. It has a portfolio of 18 properties spread across seven countries, including Australia, Singapore, Germany, Japan, Maldives, United Kingdom and New Zealand. Since its listing in 2006, CDLHT has grown the value of its portfolio of assets from $846 million, comprising just four hotels to its current asset portfolio worth more than $2.6 million. Despite this impressive track record, the more poignant question for investors is whether shareholder value has increased during this time. If the growth of the portfolio was due mostly to funds raised through rights issues without the accompaniment of organic growth, then there might have been minimal or even negative shareholder growth. To answer t

Spike in the 10-year bond and fears over inflation have led to a sell-off among S-REITs in recent weeks. Some investors have raised concerns that this resembles the painful memories of 2013 where S-REITs plunged 22 percent. However, in DBS’s opinion, the recent sell-off is different and largely overdone. Instead, DBS recommends investors to continue keeping faith in S-REITs and invest in them at a discount. REIT Fundamentals Intact With Sector Growing Looking forward, DBS expects better economic growth and easing supply pressures to bring growth back to the S-REIT sector. The stronger property fundamentals are also supporting higher rentals and revenue per available room (RevPAR) and driving higher distribution growth rate. DBS’ REIT Strategy: Buy On Weakness Given DBS’s view that t

With the 4Q17 earnings season just ending two weeks ago, how did each of the sectors fare in compared to consensus expectations? Overall, 31 percent of companies missed earnings expectations against a higher number of companies that did. There were also some positive surprises as DBS, City Development, CapitaLand, Memtech, Sunningdale and Raffles Medical raised their dividends more-than-expected. Investors Takeaway: 4Q17 Results Review Banks: Surpassed Expectations With More Positive Upside To Come     The banking sector surpassed expectations as DBS and OCBC grew more than expected. Furthermore, both banks have also guided for loan growth in the high single digits in FY18. UOBKH also foresees net interest margin expansion for the banks to continue into 2018. Right now, DBS and OCBC a

In February, many of the stocks took a hit and went down amidst fear of interest rate hikes and uncertainties over US’s inflation. However, given the backdrop of global economic growth, UOBKH opines that these “recovery plays and reflation picks” will still do well. Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) has been added to UOBKH’s alpha picks for March 2018, due to the eventual divestment of its 30 percent shareholding in Great Eastern Life Malaysia either through an upcoming IPO or a trade sale. The plan is likely to happen in 2H18 and analysts are expecting the funds from divestment of shareholdings to be a catalyst to “further propel growth”. DBS Group Holdings DBS Group Holdings (DBS) has been performing well, exceeding analysts’ e

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are one of the most popular investment choices for investors in Singapore. This is because REITs give investors exposure to the property market, in Singapore and in diverse overseas markets, as well as offer relatively good returns. In 2017, the SGX S-REIT 20 Index, comprising 20 of the largest and most highly-traded REITs listed in Singapore, delivered a return of close to 27.1%. This strong showing has been followed up by relative weakness in the year-to-date 2018, delivering a return of negative 4.8%. Compared to the broad market, the Straits Times Index (STI) has delivered a slightly lower return of 18.1% in 2017, but continued to deliver a return of 4.3% in the year-to-date 2018. This month, majority of the REITs announced their FY2017 results. H

In early 2017, Sabana REIT has been getting a lot of attention when a small group of unitholders moved to kick out the manager for delivering poor performance since its IPO in 2010. Early investors who bought Sabana at an IPO price of S$1.05 are now sitting on huge losses – Sabana last traded at just 43 cents per share. If we look at the history, Sabana REIT isn’t alone. There are several other Singapore REITs (S-REITs) like Saizen REIT, MacarthurCook Industrial REIT and Allco REIT that have run into trouble before and caused a dent in Singapore’s REIT sector. Despite some casualties, Singapore’s REIT market remains vibrant – largely thanks to the majority of S-REITs that continue to deliver good results to income investors. In this article, we look at the performance of Singapor