CICT May Potentially Acquire 2 Prime Office Bldgs In Singapore
SINGAPORE – Analysts from DBS Group Research are upbeat on CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust’s (CICT) access to good-quality office properties in Singapore from its sponsor CapitaLand, reported The Edge on Friday afternoon (10 December, SGT).
“CICT is one of the few commercial Singapore REITs that has the opportunity to acquire two newly completed prime Singapore office assets (79 Robinson and the remaining 50 percent stake in CapitaSpring) from its sponsor,” said analysts Rachel Tan and Derek Tan in a research note dated on Friday.
Moreover, the market watchers believe that CICT’s office vacancy woes are transitioning to a thing of the past, with Asia Square Tower 2 and CapitaSpring close to full committed occupancy.
Aside from that, newly completed and refurbished commercial properties will start contributing to the trust from fiscal year 2022, including Six Battery Road and 21 Collyer Quay.
Another positive thing is that despite concerns over the Omicron variant impacting Singapore’s reopening, the analysts think that a quicker recovery is just around the corner thanks to higher levels of vaccination rates and a faster response from pharmaceutical firms in producing vaccines for newer COVID-19 variants.
Furthermore, the market watchers also think that the Singapore-listed real estate investment trust (REIT) has ample war chest to acquire another commercial property.
“As CICT had decided to upsize its latest private placement to S$250 million, we estimate that CICT has remaining cash (post divestment of One George St and acquisition of Australia assets) of S$250 million, which gives them some firepower to acquire its next asset.”
Overall, the analysts believe that CICT is too big to ignore given that it’s Singapore’s biggest REIT.
“The company’s integrated commercial assets drive synergistic value and its size offers a bigger platform to grow with acquisitions of integrated development led by the rising global trend of live-work-play,” they added.
