Good show of commitment from owners of Croesus trustee-manager

WHAT the two major owners of the trustee-manager of Croesus Retail Trust (CRT) did on Thursday was a good show of commitment to unitholders that they are keeping their "skin in the game", so that they would remain incentivised to grow the trust.

Two weeks ago, CRT had announced that it was looking to internalise its manager. The market got excited. This would be the first case of an internalisation of a property trust manager in Singapore, and many have extolled the benefits of an internally managed trust over an externally managed one.

It would bring unitholders cost savings, for one thing. Studies have also shown that internally managed trusts tend to trade at a premium to externally managed ones. Unit prices have been known to pop once their managers are brought in-house.