In a recent interview, Yap gamely answered questions on REITs, funds, internalisation and M&A.
As CEO, fund management, at CapitaLand Investment (CLI), Jonathan Yap oversees CLI’s REITs and funds portfolio. Some 21 years ago, he was at Lendlease. In those days, CapitaLand, fresh from a merger between Pidemco Land and DBS Land, was attempting to list its retail mall portfolio as Singapore Property Trust (SPT) to lighten its debt-laden balance sheet.
As it happened, the IPO of SPT was shelved due to its relatively modest yield of 5-plus-%, and a lack of understanding of REITs among retail investors. SPT was repackaged and listed as CapitaLand Mall Trust in 2002. Now, as CICT, it has returned $1.16 per unit since 2011 (see chart), including the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.
