Governance of trusts: sunny, with a chance of isolated showers

LAST year, we launched the Governance Index for Trusts (GIFT), the first-ever published governance index in Singapore that is specifically developed for listed real estate investment trusts (Reits) and business trusts (BTs) in Singapore. GIFT assesses both governance and business risk factors. We assessed 43 trusts.

This year, we covered 44 trusts, comprising six that are constituted as stapled securities (SS), nine pure business trusts and 33 Reits. We excluded four newly-listed trusts that have not yet published an annual report at the cut-off date.

Some changes were made to the index, including the addition of a small number of new demerit criteria, and replacing volatility of returns with a criterion relating to foreign assets and foreign currency risks in the business risk area.