Singapore-listed Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation Ltd is considering a listing of its real estate investment trust or REIT where its buildings would be held, Bloomberg reported. In a filing to the Singapore bourse, the firm said the properties that would comprise the listing, terms, size of the offering and the timeframe are still being evaluated.
Citing sources, The Wall Street Journal said Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation intends to raise over S$500 million or $400 million for its local and overseas data center businesses. The WSJ said this development continues the run in Singapore of trust-focused listings.
The data centers operated by Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation are found in Singapore, Europe, Australia and Malaysia. It also operates a Shariah-compliant data center fund called Securus Data Property Fund together with AEP Investment Management. The latter is a Singapore-based firm that focuses in cross-border real estate investment strategies. Securus Data Property is a data center fund that supports a worldwide portfolio of data center assets of high quality, the report said.
The business interests of Keppel Corp range from constructing rigs to real estate. It holds an 80% stake in Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation. State investment firm Temasek Holdings owns a 20% stake in the Singapore-listed conglomerate, the WSJ reported.
Sources told The WSJ that the REIT listing is planned for the late first quarter. The report said that Singapore is one of the more favored destinations for trust listings. Under Singapore laws, companies that list their assets through REITs would need to give yield for their lifetime to their unit holders. The yields of the other kinds of investment trusts are not governed by any rules but they do provide yields for a certain time period.
Over $5 billion was raised through IPOs in Singapore last year. Nearly 90% of them came from business trusts like REITs, the WSJ reported.
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