Powerhouse Sponsor Mapletree

Besides CapitaLand (C31) leading strong REITs as a strong Sponsor, Mapletree Investment is also another powerhouse Sponsor. Mapletree Investments (or just Mapletree) is not listed on SGX however — it is 100% owned by Temasek Holdings.

Mapletree has assets under management (AUM) global portfolio (S$60.5 billion as at 31 Mar 2020) which focuses largely on logistics, industrial, data centres, office space, student accommodations and corporate housing. The growth from the previous year of S$55.7 billion was mainly attributable to the growing presence in US and Europe.

Logistics and data centres form approximately 35% of portfolio AUM, a significant proportion which is relatively less affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic in terms of profitability.

While Singapore and Asia remains focused as its core markets, it continues to expand its presence across 13 markets, namely Singapore, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, the UK, the US and Vietnam.

Mapletree manages, in addition to 6 private funds, 4 Singapore-listed REITs.

REIT	Ownership / interest	Country of operation	Valuation (S$bil)
Mapletree Logistics Trust	30%	Singapore, Australia, China, HK SAR, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam	4.6
Mapletree Industrial Trust	29%	Singapore, North America	3.6
Mapletree Commercial Trust	32%	Singapore	5.8
Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust	36%	China, HK SAR, Japan	4.7

3 of the 4 REITs are in the top 6 in terms of market capitalisation in Singapore. 2 of the REITs (MLT and MCT) are also constituents in the Straits Times Index (STI).

Comparing the NAV/unit versus the current share price, the undervaluation might provide opportunity for investment, as the REITs make a slow recover due to COVID-19 in the hospitality and retail sectors.

REIT	NAV/unit as at Q2 2020	Share Price as at 20 Aug 20
Mapletree Logistics Trust	S$1.22	S$2.07
Mapletree Industrial Trust	S$1.62	S$3.12
Mapletree Commercial Trust	S$1.75	S$1.89
Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust	S$1.41	S$0.90

Mapletree Group CEO Hiew Yoon Khong had said during an interview reported in The Business Times (17 Jun 2019) that “the company prefers to raise funds for acquisitions by selling assets, rather than through bank loans or issuing bonds”. With the Right of first refusal over Sponsor’s assets for its REITs, we can be certain of the continued pipeline of relevant assets to be injected in future for the Sponsor to continue focusing on its objective of delivering consistently high returns by maximising capital efficiency.

In 2019 and 2020,

• MCT Trust acquired MBC II from Mapletree at S$1.55 billion. 
• MLT acquired seven logistics properties across Malaysia, Vietnam and China from Mapletree at S$411.8 million
• MNACT acquired two office buildings in Japan from Mapletree at about S$480 million.  
• MIT acquired remaining 60% stake in 14 data centres from Mapletree at US$210.9 million.

What is also interesting to note in the next 5 years is that Mapletree plans to list two REITs (IPO of about S$2 billion each) backed by overseas assets in student accommodation and logistics. This looks promising considering the untapped assets it has in these 2 areas.