Keppel Reit units: To have and to hold – or not?

ACCORDING to the conventional wisdom “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, one ought to be grateful and not question the value of a gift. But why not?

A case in point is Keppel Corp ’s emerald (55th) anniversary reward to shareholders by way of an unexpected proposed special dividend in-specie of 352.4 million units it owns in Keppel Real Estate Investment Trust (KReit).

This proposed distribution represents a 9.4 per cent interest in KReit – one of the largest pure-play office S-Reits listed on the Singapore Exchange with a portfolio of S$9.2 billion, more than three-quarters of which is located in Singapore. The rest of the quality commercial assets under management by the Reit, which is sponsored by Keppel’s wholly-owned Keppel Land, are in key business districts in Australia, South Korea and Japan.