During a recent informal chat with CLI’s group CFO, Paul Tham, where the main subject was private credit, he said: “As we move to an increasingly fee income-focused business, we shouldn’t be looking at NAV (net asset value).”
When CapitaLand split its business by privatising the development business into CapitaLand Development (CLD) and keeping the fund management business in the listed entity, CapitaLand Investment (CLI), retail investors, in particular, had to change their mindset on how to value the company. As a real asset manager, CLI has to be valued differently from when CapitaLand was the listed entity with a significant development business.
How did analysts switch from valuing CapitaLand as a developer to valuing CLI as a real asset manager? “We looked at other real asset managers such as Goodman Group and Charter Hall,” says an analyst whose organisation covers these companies. “We had a teach-in session,” says another analyst.
