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The dating game: Why a CapitaLand-Mapletree merger could turn into a marriage of inconvenience

A union of the two Temasek stalwarts would essentially bring together two different souls who have little cultural DNA in common

Jude Chan
Published Fri, Feb 20, 2026 · 07:00 AM
    • CapitaLand Investment CEO Lee Chee Koon says any potential merger might take time and must make strategic sense.
    • CapitaLand Investment CEO Lee Chee Koon says any potential merger might take time and must make strategic sense. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT

    EVEN as the “China Dragon” breathed fire across the balance sheet of CapitaLand Investment (CLI) with a bruising S$142 million net loss for the second half-year ended Dec 31, 2025, group CEO Lee Chee Koon at the briefing last Wednesday (Feb 11) offered a metaphor more along romantic lines than one on corporate manoeuvring.

    Fending off rising speculation about a mega-merger with Mapletree Investments, he said to a crowd of journalists and analysts: “It’s like dating.

    “Sometimes you get married in a month, sometimes you take a few years, and sometimes when you are almost going to get married, you decide that you cannot (go through with it).”

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