Mapletree China-focused REIT listed, Singapore's largest REIT IPO

SINGAPORE, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust (MGCCT), Singapore's largest initial public offering (IPO) in two years, listed in Singapore Exchange on Thursday, with its shares closed at 1.03 Singapore dollars (0.83 U. S. dollar) compared with its IPO price of 0.93 Singapore dollar (0. 75 U.S. dollar) per unit.

The real estate investment trust (REIT), the fourth sponsored by Mapletree Investments, opened at 1.02 Singapore dollars (0.82 U. S. dollar) and had surged to the highest price of 1.045 Singapore dollars (0.84 U.S. dollar) during the half day trading, up 12.4 percent compared with the IPO price.

According to the Mapletree's latest press release on Tuesday, the REIT was nearly 30 times oversubscribed and had raised close to 1.7 billion Singapore dollars (1.37 billion U.S. dollars) in its IPO.

The trust is managed by Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust Management, a subsidiary of the Mapletree Investments. The company said the REIT's portfolio mainly focuses on the Great China region, including retail and office developments of the Festival Walk in Hong Kong and the Gateway Plaza in Beijing.

"For MGCCT, we're focusing on the first-tier cities, as well as top tier, second-tier cities like the inland cities of Chongqing, Chengdu and Wuhan. In the first-tier cities, it will be the three regions of Shanghai, Suzhou and the Nanjing area - so these are actually the main growth areas of China which contribute more than 50 percent of the GDP for the overall China market," local media Channel NewsAsia quoted Chua Tiow Chye, Board Director of MGCCT, as saying.

Owned by the city-state's Sovereign Wealth Fund Temasek, Mappletree Investment now have four REIT in total. As of the end of last March, the company owned and managed 19.9 billion Singapore dollars (16.0 billion U.S. dollars) worth of office, logistics, industrial, residential, retail and mixed-use properties across Asia.

Its portfolio includes VivoCity in Singapore and some projects in China. The Great China represents one of the company's biggest market overseas, accounting for 29 percent of its total portfolio, with approximately 5.7 billion Singapore dollars (4.6 billion U.S. dollars).

The company began its business in China in 2005, with initial investments mainly in logistics.

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