Did bearishness about the property sector prompt Northstar to divest Apac Realty at steep discount?

APAC Realty , which provides real estate agency services under the ERA brand, had a change of majority ownership recently – with the divestment happening even as it reported a stellar financial performance for FY2021.

Private equity firm Northstar Group sold a 59.8 per cent stake to Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia at a price of S$0.61 per share, or S$0.57 after netting off the S$0.04 dividend. This represents a discount of about 30 per cent to Apac Realty's last trading price before the transaction was announced.

The divestment came even as Apac Realty, a key property service provider with about a one-third share of the market in Singapore, reported that its FY2021 topline jumped 87.2 per cent to S$739.8 million, while earnings rose over 110 per cent to S$35.3 million.