Manulife US Reit to get slight lift in reverting to previous group structure

Singapore

MANULIFE US Reit is reverting to a group structure largely similar to the one it adopted at the time of its listing in 2016 after ascertaining it will suffer no meaningful adverse impact stemming from changes in the US tax regulations.

The impact of this reversion would be negligible for this fiscal year due to the compliance and restructuring costs already incurred.

But savings from next year onwards could add about 0.7 per cent to its distributable income, the Reit manager said on Tuesday.

It noted that the final regulations under Section 267A of the US Internal Revenue Code, issued last week, had no meaningful differences from the earlier proposed 267A regulations.

As a result, the manager believes that the final 267A regulations would allow Manulife US Reit to revert to its previous structure, and that means enabling it to do away with the Barbados entities which were set up in January 2018 to ameliorate any adverse impact arising from the …