Some landlords, like Mapletree Industrial Trust, command market prices twice their net asset values. Others, like Sabana Shari’ah Compliant Industrial REIT, or Sabana REIT, trade at a chronic discount. This column is about Sabana, and how it became a vehicle in a Swiss value investor’s campaign to make confrontational shareholder capitalism work in polite and obedient Singapore.
There’s a glitzy side of Singapore property: the cavernous shopping malls; the tall office buildings; the pricey condominiums; the luxury hotels; and the hospitals where rich Indonesians and Bangladeshis seek treatment and five-star customer service.
But there’s also a vibrant market at the non-sexy end of the spectrum: the warehouses, the factory sheds and, increasingly, the data centers. Their owners are industrial real estate investment trusts, which collect rent and pass it on to unitholders. It’s something that appeals to an aging population that values the certainty of dividends more than the headiness of growth.
