CapitaLand aims to revive property trust IPO

Southeast Asia's largest listed property group, CapitaLand is attempting to revive the botched initial public offering (IPO) of its retail property trust, SingMall Property Trust (SPT). CapitaLand has changed the name of SPT to CapitaMall Trust and appointed DBS Bank as the lead manager for its proposed IPO. The IPO is subject to regulatory approvals and favourable market conditions and is expected, according to some observers, to be launched in the second half of the year.

SPT is a retail-property trust formed along the lines of real estate investment trusts (REITS) in the United States and listed property trusts (LPT) in Australia. SPT had tried to become Singapore's first listed property trust when it launched an IPO in November 2001 to raise S$740m. The IPO -Singapore's biggest since 1993 when Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) - was aimed at improving CapitaLand's return on equity as it would have been able to realise its book value for its properties and create a new fee-based business derived from third-party property management fees. The IPO was shelved following lukewarm response from investors.