Singaporean firm ponders listing in HK

Singaporean developer Ascendas said it was considering listing a real estate investment trust (reit) in Hong Kong, which would make it the second yuan-denominated initial public offering outside the mainland.

'Hong Kong has its own unique characteristics,' president and chief executive Chong Siak-ching said. 'Hong Kong has been able to attract even European countries to list on its stock market, so the profile of the companies is very different [than in Singapore]. So Hong Kong would also be one destination we look at.'

Ascendas was set up 10 years ago in the merger of Arcasia Land and JTC International's Business Parks and Facilities Group in Singapore. Its properties range from office buildings to science and industrial parks to logistics centres and warehouse retail facilities.

Beginning with a portfolio of assets under management worth S$1.2 billion (HK$ 7.61 billion) in 2001, the group has expanded to manage properties totalling at least S$10 billion and 45 million square feet in more than 30 cities across 10 countries including China, India, South Korea and Vietnam.

Ascendas manages properties through its two reits and seven private funds.

In 2002, the company listed its first business and industrial space reit, Ascendas Reit, on the Singapore Exchange with eight properties worth S$545 million. Its portfolio has grown rapidly and now includes 93 properties valued at around S$6 billion. Chong said. Four years ago, it listed the Ascendas India Trust in Singapore, the city-state's first listed business trust holding.

The company first entered the mainland in 1995, when it pioneered the ready-built facility industrial park concept in Suzhou, Jiangsu, Chong said. Now the mainland is the firm's third-largest market with assets under management worth S$1.6 billion providing 9 million square feet of business space in 10 cities.