NTUC Enterprise’s Mercatus said to have put 11 retail assets up for sale at S$307 million guide price

[SINGAPORE] NTUC Enterprise unit Mercatus is understood to have put on the market a portfolio of 11 retail assets across Singapore – comprising strata retail space in Coronation Shopping Plaza and Bukit Timah Plaza and nine Housing & Development Board (HDB) commercial shops.

The total indicative price of the 11 properties, adding up to about 172,000 sq ft of space, is about S$307 million, The Business Times understands.

The properties have full occupancy, anchored by Singapore’s biggest supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice, which is set to retain long-term tenancies in the assets.

On a portfolio basis, the indicative price is said to reflect an entry net yield of almost 4 per cent.

NTUC Enterprise declined to comment.

The portfolio includes a nearly 10,200 sq ft ground-floor unit occupied by FairPrice Finest supermarket in the freehold Coronation Shopping Plaza at 587 Bukit Timah Road.

Two properties in the portfolio, at Woodlands Drive 50 and Telok Blangah Street 32, have short balance tenures of about two years and five years respectively.

Balance tenures for the remaining assets average about 55 years. They vary from 49 years and nine months for Bukit Timah Plaza at 1 Jalan Anak Bukit, where Mercatus owns the nearly 44,300 sq ft space in basements 1 and 2 occupied by a 24-hour Fairest Finest supermarket, to about 64 years for a 6,100 sq ft unit at 475 Tampines Street 44 and a nearly 4,900 sq ft retail space on level 1 of 279 Bishan Street 24.

Except for the supermarket at Coronation Shopping Plaza, the other 10 supermarkets operate 24 hours.

Four bundles

Word on the street is that the 11 properties have been divided into four bundles, each with about 40,000-plus sq ft of space. The indicative prices for the bundles range from around S$71.5 million to S$82 million.

Prospective buyers may submit offers for individual bundles, or the entire portfolio.

Mercatus is understood to have appointed CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield to conduct an expression of interest exercise for the sale of the portfolio.

The largest property in the portfolio is the one in Bukit Timah Plaza, followed by a nearly 37,500 sq ft space at 212 Bedok North Street 1 and about 17,560 sq ft on the ground floor of 451 Clementi Avenue 3.

The smallest property, at 2,540 sq ft, is the one in Telok Blangah.

The strata retail space in Bukit Timah Plaza is said to have the biggest price tag, of about S$71.5 million. It is the sole property in one of the four bundles.

Other properties in the portfolio include a ground-floor unit of about 11,500 sq ft at 1 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, a 12,500 sq ft unit on the ground floor of 202 Hougang Street 21 occupied by FairPrice Finest supermarket, and a second-floor unit of about 15,100 sq ft at 221 Boon Lay Place.

Three of the 11 properties have FairPrice Finest supermarkets; the other eight locations have FairPrice supermarkets.

FairPrice Group – which includes the NTUC FairPrice supermarket chain, Cheers convenience outlets, the Unity Pharmacy chain and Kopitiam food courts – is one of five “impact businesses” under NTUC Enterprise. The others are NTUC First Campus, NTUC Health, Income Insurance and NTUC LearningHub.

Past divestments

In September 2023, BT reported that Mercatus put 18 assets in HDB estates up for sale with a total indicative price of S$265 million. The properties, which also totalled about 170,000 sq ft, comprised HDB shops, shophouses and low-rise commercial blocks.

The properties were split into three bundles.

Property group JBE picked up one bundle in what was then reported to be a low-S$80 million deal. Evia Real Estate bought the other two bundles for about S$175 million.

In late January 2023, Mercatus inked a deal to sell its half stake in Nex mall in Serangoon Central to Frasers Centrepoint Trust and Frasers Property; that transaction valued the prime suburban mall (100 per cent interest) at S$2.08 billion.

In late December 2022, Mercatus entered a deal to sell its entire interest in Jurong Point and Swing By @ Thomson Plaza to Link Real Estate Investment Trust for S$2.16 billion.