Private fund said to be buying 11 Mercatus retail assets for S$281 million

[SINGAPORE] Entities linked to Altallo Asset Management are understood to have inked deals to buy the portfolio of 11 retail assets that NTUC Enterprise unit Mercatus put on the market in the fourth quarter of last year.

The portfolio is being sold at a total price of S$281 million, which is 8.4 per cent lower than the S$307 million indicative price for the entire portfolio reported by The Business Times in November 2025.

The properties comprise private strata-titled retail space in Bukit Timah Plaza and the freehold Coronation Shopping Plaza, and nine Housing & Development Board (HDB) commercial shops. The 11 properties add up to about 172,000 square feet (sq ft) of space.

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

A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the S$281 million price being paid by Altallo reflects an entry net yield of around 4.3 per cent.

Two properties in the portfolio have short balance tenures. The one in Woodlands Drive 50 has one year and eight months left in its tenure, and another in Telok Blangah Street 32 has a balance of nearly five years.

The other nine assets have remaining tenures ranging from 49.5 years to about 64 years.

Market watchers noted that sales of HDB commercial properties require the Housing Board’s approval.

Altallo Asset Management was incorporated last year with the primary business activity of fund management. It is owned by Roger Tan and Seah Jun Hao.

Altallo has said its capital funding is expected to come from multiple investors and family offices across South-east Asia and beyond.

BT reported last month that Altallo has entered into a put and call option agreement for the purchase of 158 Cecil Street, a 14-storey office building in the Central Business District, for S$175 million.

In December, Altallo completed the purchase of four large-format HDB retail units in Bukit Merah Central and near the Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio and Clementi MRT stations. The total price is said to be in the S$160 million-plus range.

An Altallo-linked entity is also understood to be paying a low-S$90 million figure for the cluster of nine properties in HDB estates that property group JBE picked up from Mercatus in 2024 at the low-S$80 million range. BT understands that the deal is not completed yet.

Portfolio details

Of the 11 retail properties that Altallo has agreed to acquire from Mercatus, the biggest absolute price quantum of S$65.4 million is for the 24-hour FairPrice Finest supermarket in Bukit Timah Plaza at 1 Jalan Anak Bukit. The 44,810 sq ft supermarket is in basements 1 and 2 of the building, which is on a site with a remaining tenure of 49.5 years.

This is followed by S$63.9 million, for a space of about 37,470 sq ft on levels 1 and 2 at 212 Bedok North Street 1; the balance tenure of the property is about 52 years and seven months.

A 17,556 sq ft space at 451 Clementi Avenue 3, with 52 years and 10 months’ remaining tenure, is changing hands at S$32.8 million.

At the freehold Coronation Shopping Plaza at 587 Bukit Timah Road, Altallo is paying nearly S$32.4 million – or S$3,177 psf on the strata area of 10,193 sq ft – for the ground-floor unit occupied by a FairPrice Finest supermarket.

Other properties in the portfolio include a 12,486 sq ft ground-floor unit at 202 Hougang Street 21 occupied by FairPrice Finest and being sold at close to S$21 million, and a second-floor unit of about 15,100 sq ft at 221 Boon Lay Place (S$21.8 million). The two properties have remaining tenures of around 57 years and 52 years, respectively.

At 1 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, Altallo is acquiring an 11,500 sq ft unit on the ground floor at S$21.4 million; the property has a balance tenure of about 49 years and 10 months.

Altallo is paying around S$641,100 for the smallest space in the portfolio, the 2,540 sq ft unit in Telok Blangah. It has also picked up the 10,021 sq ft space in Woodlands Drive 50 for S$769,361. (Both have short balance tenures.)

Altallo is also acquiring a nearly 4,900 sq ft space in Bishan Street 24 for S$9.8 million, and a 6,100 sq ft unit in Tampines Street 44 for nearly S$11.1 million. Both have balance tenures of about 64 years.

BT reported in November that Mercatus had appointed CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield to conduct an expression of interest exercise for the sale of the portfolio.

The 11 properties had been packaged into four bundles.

Prospective buyers were allowed to submit offers for individual bundles, or the entire portfolio.