KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (July 3): IGB Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) revealed yesterday that its planned offering on July 30 has been postponed until September 20 because to the country’s prolonged lockdown, which has harmed investor sentiment. The REIT also plans to reduce its institutional offering from an initial target of 282 million units to a minimum of 130 million units, lowering the minimum public unitholding spread to 20% from 25%.
Nonetheless, it is anticipated to be the largest stand-alone office REIT and the sixth-largest REIT on Bursa Malaysia when it lists, with a market capitalization of RM2.31 billion.
Is an initial public offering (IPO) likely to pique investors’ interest? The REIT anticipates a distribution yield of 3.9 percent in 2021, increasing to 5% in 2022.
We questioned the decision to list when the local economy had practically came to a halt due to the reimposition of a full lockdown in a recent exclusive interview with IGB Bhd group chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Seri Robert Tan Chung Meng.
Was he worried that under the new normal, demand for office space might decline? What about the pressure on landlords to make changes to their leases?
Tan discusses IGB’s future intentions for additional business divisions in an accompanying story.
We also look at how Malaysian office REITs performed in terms of net property income, occupancy rate, distribution yield, and share price movement last year.
More information can be found in the July 5 issue of The Edge Malaysia weekly./n
