“For real estate companies with sizeable scale of investment properties and fund management business, it also makes sense for them to consider doing the similar restructuring to unlock value,” said Patrick Wong, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. “City Developments may be another possible candidate to do a similar type of restructuring.”
The move by Singapore’s largest real estate company to split its business into a new, publicly traded investment manager and a privately owned developer may pave the way for local rivals to do the same.
Thinning profit margins from property development in the face of rising construction and land costs could spur others to focus on fund management, analysts said after CapitaLand Ltd. unveiled the plans this week. Builders have also been hammered by the pandemic, which battered markets ranging from hospitality to offices and led to record losses for CapitaLand and its biggest competitor City Developments Ltd.
