Dear readers, Capitamalls Trust and Capitaland Commerical Trust will merge to form the third largest Reit in Asia-Pacific, as was announced yesterday. This news was not surprising to me at all since I have shared with readers that given the limited size of the Singapore’s market, the only way for Reits and Trusts to grow would be via scale; i.e. acquire more properties or merge with other counterparts so as to increase the size of the assets under management (AUM). In fact ever since it was announced last December that Frasers Logistics and Frasers Commercial Trust would be possibly merged, I have surfaced the Capitaland, Keppel, Mapletree family group of trusts and reits to be the next candidates of merger as per this earlier post here: Which Singapore Reits, Trusts may be merged next?
I continue to believe that the following Reits and Trusts may possibly be merged or consolidated with others next. Especially the Keppel group of Reits and Trusts since it was announced that arising from a strategic review of Keppel’s businesses, Keppel management has stated that it will focus on its core businesses in the horizon leading to year 2030.
1. Capita Retail China Trust
2. Fraser Commercial Trust, Fraser Centrepoint Trust, Fraser Logistics Trust, Frasers Hospitality Trust
3. Keppel Pacific Oak Reit USD, Keppel DC Reit, Keppel Reit, Keppel Infrastructure Trust
4. Mapletree Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust