SINGAPORE (Dec 2): Far East Consortium International, the Hong Kong developer, is considering a REIT in Singapore that could raise as much as $500 million, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The company is working with advisers on the potential sale of trust units backed mainly by hotels under the Dorsett brand, the people said. The IPO could take place as early as the first half of 2020, according to two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
In a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Nov 28, the company confirmed it is mulling a “potential spinoff and separate listing of certain hospitality properties” on an overseas securities exchange. The assets are in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and the UK, it said.
Far East Consortium has been snapping up assets this year, most recently buying OUE’s hotel and serviced apartment development in Singapore for $289 million in September.
Far East Consortium owned 28 operating hotels with about 7,500 rooms at the end of March, with a further 15 properties in the development pipeline, according to its full-year results announcement. Most of them are concentrated in Hong Kong, with the rest spread across mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Europe.
The company, led by CEO David Chiu, has a market value of HK$8.1 billion ($1.4 billion) in Hong Kong. It owns the hotels through its Dorsett Hospitality International unit, which it took private in 2015. — Bloomberg LP
