CapitaLand leads Singapore REIT consolidation with $4.4 billion purchase from Temasek
- New group’s assets under management will be more than S$116 billion
- Deal marks one of the biggest consolidations in Singapore’s fragmented real estate investment trust sector
Singapore’s CapitaLand is buying the owner of a clutch of real estate investment trusts from state investor Temasek for about US$4.4 billion, a deal the developer said would create the largest diversified property group in Asia.
CapitaLand will buy the holding companies of the business of the Ascendas-Singbridge Group, which manages Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust, Ascendas India Trust and Ascendas Hospitality Trust, for cash and stock.
The deal marks one of the biggest consolidations in Singapore’s fragmented real estate investment trust sector, in which some segments, like retail, face increased challenges, partly due to the onslaught of e-commerce.
The deal will create a group with combined total assets under management of more than S$116 billion (US$85.81 billion), CapitaLand and Ascendas-Singbridge said in a joint statement on Monday.
Real estate developer CapitaLand’s global businesses span shopping malls, lodging, offices, homes, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and funds. The deal will push CapitaLand ahead of its target to grow its assets under management to S$100 billion by 2020.
Ascendas-Singbridge is mainly a business space provider, such as logistics and business parks, as well as data centres.
“Geographically, the deal strengthens CapitaLand’s presence in our core markets of Singapore and China, while adding meaningful scale in India, U.S. and Europe,” Chief Executive Lee Chee Koon said in a statement.