By Danessa Rivera
07/26/2010 [ tribune.net.ph ]
A Malaysian real estate investment trust (REIT) firm is looking for investments opportunities in the Philippines after the recent approval of the REIT rules by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
Malaysian REIT firm Axis REIT Managers Berhad chief executive officer Stewart LaBrooy is arriving in Manila as one of the speakers during the REIT Asia Pacific Philippines Summit 2010 to be held on July 27 to 28.
Aside from looking for investment opportunities, Axis will also share its REIT expertise with Philippine companies.
“With REIT regulations now in place and high quality assets available in the Philippines, we sincerely hope that we will witness a further extension of the success story of listed Asian REITs,” LaBrooy said.
He said the Asian REIT market ex Japan has made a dramatic recovery to their pre-crisis levels, outperforming both the equity markets and their peers in the West.
“Interest in the sector is renewed in the light of the very highly volatile global markets which are finding it difficult to shake off the effects of the global financial crisis,” LaBrooy said, adding Asia has witnessed over the past year one large successful REIT listing in Singapore and two in Malaysia with a total asset valuation of $2.25 billion.
The two Malaysian REITs have injected much needed liquidity in the Malaysian REIT market which has effectively doubled the size of assets listed to over $3 billion.
Axis-REIT Managers’ primary objective is to ensure that the Axis-REIT Fund provides a regular and stable income distribution to unit holders and ensure long-term growth in the net asset value of the fund.
It aims to achieve this through an organic growth strategy by maintaining and improving the occupancy and net property income within the portfolio of properties, an acquisition growth strategy by selective acquisition of yield accretive properties, and a financing strategy by putting in place a cohesive debt and equity strategy which also addresses funding cost risks.
The REIT Act was recently signed into law, as the fourth landmark legislative reform proposed by the PSE to boost the local capital market and was supported by the government with the SEC following through with the publication of the implementing rules and regulations for the REIT Law, followed by the PSE’s issuance of its REIT listing rules.
To encourage investments in REITs, the REIT law provides certain tax incentives to the REIT while investors are given access to a lower risk instrument with a steady dividend yield.
“The Asian REIT market ex Japan has made a dramatic recovery to their pre-crisis levels, outperforming both the equity markets and their peers in the West,” LaBrooy noted.
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