SINGAPORE (Mar 12): City Developments has selected banks to help with a potential listing on the Singapore stock exchange of its UK commercial properties, according to people familiar with the matter.
The homebuilder is working with DBS Group Holdings and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation on the planned initial public offering, said the people, who asked not to be named as the information is private. The company is considering listing the assets as a real estate investment trust as soon as by the end of this year, and could raise as much as $700 million, the people said.
City Developments will be joining companies such as Singapore Press Holdings and Hong Kong developer Far East Consortium International in seeking REIT listings on the city-state’s benchmark exchange this year. Singapore has hosted US$2.6 billion ($3.6 billion) of property trust IPOs over the last 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
City Developments is one of Singapore’s largest real estate companies by revenue, attracting $3.4 billion in 2019. It owns over 18 million square feet of office, industrial, retail, residential and hotel space in 29 countries and regions, according to its website. In the U.K, it owns Aldgate House and 125 Old Broad Street in Central London, which together are worth about 600 million pounds, City Development’s Group Chief Investment Officer Frank Khoo told reporters last month.
The company aims to buy a third commercial property in the U.K. to increase its assets under management to 1 billion pounds prior to the planned flotation, Khoo recently said to Business Times. The REIT units could be offered in pounds or Singapore dollars, he said.
Details of the share sale including timeline and size could change as deliberations are ongoing, said the people. A weak market sentiment and outbreak of the novel coronavirus could weigh on the IPO plan, they said. Representatives for DBS, City Developments and OCBC declined to comment.
