Singapore business trusts seek to raise close to $2 billion

With equity markets around the region remaining somewhat unpredictable and the Japanese central bank having joined the reflation party earlier this month, it is not surprising that investors are still attracted to yield.

We see it in the debt market, where high-yield bond offers are attracting billions of dollars of demand and we saw it in the popularity of Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust’s $1.3 billion initial public offering in February.

Issuers are of course keen to tap into this. In Hong Kong, at least three property developers are queuing up to monetise part of their hotel portfolios through a business trust-like structure that allows them to...