THE trustee of Sabana Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (Sabana Reit) indicated last week that it “will expect” the current manager of the Reit to serve as interim manager in the event unitholders vote for a controversial internalisation proposal.

This could assuage concerns among some unitholders that the internalisation plan will leave Sabana Reit without a manager for a lengthy period of time, and potentially in breach of its loan covenants.

More to the point, Sabana Reit’s manager may now be in the awkward position of having to publicly state whether it plans to live up to the expectations of the trustee.