Viva Industrial Trust's portfolio value rises to S$1.2b

VIVA Industrial Trust (VIT) has said that it is acquiring a third property located at Pioneer Road and it is expected to be completed in the first quarter this year.

The first two acquisitions completed last year were for properties located at Tai Seng Avenue and Ubi Road 1.

The three acquisitions would boost Viva Industrial's portfolio value to about S$1.2 billion.

As part of its asset-enhancement initiative, the trust is renaming its property at Technopark@Chai Chee to Viva Business Park.

It added that the revamped business park is to be launched in the first three months of this year.

In the past year, besides identifying suitable acquisition targets, VIT also conducted feasibility studies on certain assets which were made available to it through the right of first refusal (ROFR) granted by its sponsors.

The company said its manager has decided not to exercise the ROFR from Ho Lee Group for the acquisition of a 1,070,642 square feet industrial property located at 7000 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 for S$255 million.

Said Wilson Ang, CEO of Viva Industrial Trust Management: "We have considered the opportunity very carefully but decided that the acquisition of the Ang Mo Kio property at the present point in time would not be in the best interests of VIT given that a major equity fund-raising exercise would be required to partially finance the acquisition of the Ang Mo Kio property in order for VI-Reit (real estate investment trust) to maintain its gearing ratio at the current level."

He added that the acquisition would not be yield-accretive under the prevailing depressed equity market conditions.