WOULD Singapore’s real estate investment trust (Reit) and business trust sector be any more vibrant if these structures were internally managed rather than externally managed?

We might be about to find out. On Nov 23, a group of investors claiming to own more than 10 per cent of Dasin Retail Trust (DRT) requisitioned an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove its existing trustee-manager and create an internal trustee-manager.

This came less than four months after unitholders of Sabana Industrial Trust (Sabana Reit) voted at an EGM on Aug 7 to remove its manager, and direct its trustee to set up an internal manager.