Reits band together to form new industry body to engage regulators, educate investors

Several real estate investment trusts (Reits) and other legal and banking players have banded together to form an association - called The Reit Association of Singapore (Reitas) - to promote the growth of Singapore's Reit sector.

It will be headed by a nine-member executive committee (exco), which includes representatives from some of the major Reits and sponsors such as Mapletree, CapitaLand, Frasers and Keppel.

Mapletree's group chief investment officer Chua Tiow Chye is the president of the association, which also counts in its exco: Keppel Reit CEO Ng Hsueh Ling, CapitaLand's group chief financial officer Arthur Lang, ARA Asset Management (Fortune) CEO Anthony Ang, Ascendas Reit CEO Tan Ser Ping, and Frasers Centrepoint Trust's non-executive director Christopher Tang.

One of Reitas' aims is to engage the authorities to improve the legal and regulatory environment for Reits in Singapore. It has its first task cut out for it: to amass the collective feedback from Reits in response to the Monetary Authority of Singapore's latest consultation paper.

Reitas, which is to be officially launched on Nov 17 - also wants to create better understanding of the investment opportunities in Singapore Reits through educating and disseminating information to retail investors here.