Mapletree Commercial Trust to replace Hutchison Port Holdings Trust on STI

MCT's inclusion would bring combined weightage of the four Reits in the STI to around 8 per cent

Claudia Chong

Published Thu, Sep 5, 2019 · 09:50 PM

Singapore

MAPLETREE Commercial Trust (MCT) will join the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) with effect from Sept 23, replacing Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPHT).

Based on mid-year STI weightages and comparative performances to date, MCT would maintain a weightage in the STI that is close to 1.5 per cent. This would bring the combined weightage of the four Reits (real estate investment trusts) in the STI to around 8 per cent, said Singapore Exchange market strategist Geoff Howie.

MCT's 2019 year-to-date total return was 43 per cent, putting it among Singapore's most actively traded 25 stocks by turnover over the first eight months of 2019.

MCT posted a 3.6 per cent year-on-year increase in distribution per unit (DPU) to 2.31 Singapore cents for the first quarter ended June 30. Gross revenue was up 3.3 per cent year-on-year to S$112.13 million due to higher contributions from all properties except Mapletree Anson.

In particular, VivoCity saw a 5.2 per cent rise in gross revenue and a 4.2 per cent growth in net property income for the quarter. VivoCity's newest anchor tenant, FairPrice, successfully soft-launched its 91,000 square foot integrated store on July 16 this year.

At review, all constituents of the STI must be existing or pending constituents of the FTSE ST All-Share Index.

A constituent of the STI will be deleted at the quarterly review if it falls to 41st position or below when eligible securities are ranked by full market capitalisation, before the application of any investability weightings.

"On 26 August, when the review would have been conducted, HPHT was ranked around 50th position of the largest stocks by market capitalisation in the FTSE ST All-Share Index," said Mr Howie.

The STI reserve list, comprising the five highest-ranking non-constituents of the STI by market capitalisation, will be (in order of size) Mapletree Logistics Trust, Suntec Reit, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Keppel Reit and Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust.

Stocks on the reserve list will replace any constituents that become ineligible as a result of corporate actions, before the next review.

The next quarterly review will take place in December 2019.