Digital securities platform iSTOX has tokenised a part of the recently launched Mapletree fund, Mapletree Europe Income Trust (MERIT).
See: Mapletree raises EUR507 mil for first European office fund
A part of the fund has been made available to individual accredited investors in tokenised form through Prometheus-2 and in smaller units. The tokenisation is the first for a Mapletree fund.
MERIT targets a 12% internal rate of return and will be managed by Mapletree Real Estate Advisors, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mapletree.
MERIT will be Mapletree’s 11th private equity fund and the fourth such fully-seeded fund that’s invested in real estate sectors.
MERIT has EUR507 million ($816 million) in total fund equity, is fully invested at closing and consists of seven Grade A office properties totalling around 270,000 sqm at a total asset value of EUR1.2 billion.
The Euro-denominated Trust has a term of five years with a provision for two one-year extensions. It will be making distributions on a semi-annual basis.
Primary subscription for individual investors via iSTOX closed in March. Subscribed units are now listed on the iSTOX exchange for secondary trading.
As at March 31, Mapletree has over $60 billion of assets under management (AUM) with offices across 13 markets including Asia Pacific, Europe, the UK and the US.
“For an individual accredited investor, real estate funds can form a valuable component of a diversified portfolio because of the stable income they generate. But generally speaking, smaller accredited investors find it very difficult to gain access to private real estate funds because of the minimum investment amount,” says Choo Oi Yee, iSTOX’s chief commercial officer.
“With tokenisation, iSTOX enables that access by using blockchain and smart contract technology to overcome manual processes in the life cycle of a security – including the issuance, custody and post-sale management phases.”
“Mapletree has demonstrated far-sightedness and progressive thinking in allowing a part of its Europe fund to be made available to smaller investors. At a time when companies and governments globally are increasing their efforts in promoting income and wealth equality, Mapletree is showing true leadership,” she adds.
“At iSTOX, we expect digital securities to eventually become a regular part of the conversation for any company planning an issuance. As they are fundamentally more efficient, we expect digital securities to grow rapidly as a share of total securities issued – benefiting both issuers and investors.”
