REITs continue to be bankers’ best friends. Of course, investors would prefer REITs to be investors’best friends. At any rate, as of Dec 8, REITs had raised more than $5 billion in equity and quasi-equity such as perpetual securities (see Table 1). Despite Covid-19, which has been largely controlled within Singapore’s borders, it was a banner year for fundraising and acquisitions by S-REITs.
The three largest equity fund raisings were from Frasers Centrepoint Trust (FCT), Ascendas REIT and Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) which raised $1.3 billion, $1.19 billion and $600 million respectively. Mapletree Industrial Trust (MINT) raised a modest $309.6 million amount to acquire the remaining 60% stake in a portfolio of data centres in the US, transforming increasingly into a data centre proxy for investors. The acquisitions by FCT, MLT, MINT and Ascendas REIT were mainly accretive.
