On June 16, Bloomberg reported that Mercatus Co-operative, a unit of NTUC Co-operative, is exploring a strategic review of its retail portfolio. Analysts understand that to indicate that four malls are up for sale. These are Jurong Point, a 50% stake in NEX, AMK Hub and 110,000 sq ft of strata space at Thomson Plaza.
“Collectively, the 1.5 million sq ft net lettable area (NLA) of retail space could cost in excess of $4 billion and offer potential bidders over 3% market share of the private retail stock,” notes a recent report by UBS.
Of these four properties, Jurong Point and NEX are the most attractive. “NEX is the crown jewel, we believe. As the largest mall in the North-East region, it has a good catchment and would be a strategic fit to any existing retail portfolio,” UBS says.
According to UBS, Swing By @ Thomson Plaza is less attractive being a strata-titled mall with a shorter land tenure. The 99 year lease which started in 1976 has another 53 years left.
“On an average NPI margin of 72%, we estimate cap rates range between 4.4% to 4.85% which appears in line with suburban malls,” UBS estimates.
The $4 billion price is likely to put the portfolio out of reach of most of the S-REITs. Sponsors that could be interested could include CapitaLand Investment, Mapletree, Far East Organization, Lendlease and Frasers Property, UBS suggests. Link REIT could also take a look, it adds.
