Are fees paid to REIT managers really the problem?

SINGAPORE (April 13): The extraordinary general meeting requisitioned by 66 disgruntled unitholders of Sabana Shari’ah Compliant Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (Sabana REIT) that has been scheduled for April 28 could see a lively debate about the fees that the beleaguered REIT has been paying its manager.

Jerry Low Chin Yee, the de facto leader of the dissident unitholders, says his main gripe is that Sabana REIT’s distributions per unit (DPUs) have dropped from 9.38 cents in 2013 to 5.01 cents in 2016. During this period, however, fees paid to Sabana REIT’s manager remained largely intact.

Sabana REIT’s manager has defended the fees payable by the REIT, stating in the EGM circular to unitholders that they are “within the range of all the fees charged by other property managers of Singapore-focused industrial and logistics REITs with [assets under management (AUM)] of between $1 billion and $2 billion”.

---

Related Stories

• Industrial policy’s deceptive new clothes
• Philippines seeks Asia logistics hub status, banking on US ties
• Chasen flags FY2024 loss as logistics property is being rebuilt

---