[ manilastandardtoday.com ] July 26, 2010
Foreign investment managers are looking at the Philippines for possible investment opportunities after approval of the real estate investment trust rules by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Malaysian Reit company Axis Reit Managers Berhad has expressed interest to share its expertise with Philippine companies.
Axis chief executive Stewart LaBrooy is coming to Manila as one of the speakers during the Reit Asia Pacific Philippines Summit 2010 to be held on July 27 to 28.
“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 said.
He said “the conservative gearing levels and low beta of these stock have led to a renewed interest in the sector 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 Asia 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 market, which has effectively doubled the size of assets listed to over $3 billion.
“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,” said LaBrooy. Jenniffer B. Austria
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