S-Reits stay shy of M&A route to growth

Singapore

MERGER and acquisition (M&A) activity in mature real estate investment trust (Reit) markets around the world has picked up through 2015 and 2016, an EY report said on Tuesday.

But this trend is less discernible in Singapore, the sixth-largest market globally by market capitalisation. And this has to do with the fact that Singapore Reits (S-Reits) tend to be mostly sponsor-backed and externally managed, unlike in other jurisdictions such as Australia and the US where Reits are more likely to be independent and internally managed.