SABANA SHARI'AH COMPLIANT REIT
M1GU.SI
Sabana Shari'ah Compliant REIT - A new substantial Unitholder has emerged
Event-driven trading idea
- Since our original Trading Note from over a month ago (23 January), units of Sabana Shari'ah Compliant REIT (SSREIT) have appreciated by ~15%, and investors who had bought into it would have also received the 4Q FY16 distribution of 0.88 cent/unit – bringing total return to ~17%.
- We believe that the odds of a re-rating for the REIT have just improved with the new substantial Unitholder coming on board.
Investment Action: Event-driven Trading Buy
- Our "Trading Buy" call is specifically with a view to trade on the event risk arising from the impending general meeting, restructuring of the REIT and resultant re-rating of the REIT.
- It is not based on any merits/demerits of the proposed acquisitions or fundamental outlook for the REIT. Our target price of $0.54 is based on 0.90x P/NAV multiple.
- Key risk: A restructuring does not materialise, thus rendering our thesis void.
What Is The News?
A new substantial Unitholder has emerged
- SSREIT announced through a filing made on 3 March after market hours that e-Shang Infinity Cayman Limited, a 95.2% owned indirect-subsidiary of e-Shang Redwood Limited (ESR), has crossed the threshold as a new substantial Unitholder with a 5.01% stake in SSREIT.
- To give some background, ESR recently bought an 80% stake in the manager of Cambridge Industrial Trust (CIT). ESR also holds a 12.01% stake in CIT.
What do we think of this?
A few possible outcomes, with ESR now in the mix
- We do not believe that ESR, being a real estate investment firm, intends to be a passive minority investor of SSREIT. Instead, we believe that ESR has the intention of taking an active role in the REIT. We can think of a few possible scenarios:
- ESR voting to remove the incumbent manager with the intention of taking over the helm,
- ESR taking a stake in the incumbent manager and forming a strategic alliance,
- an outright takeover of SSREIT or
- ESR taking over as the Sponsor of the REIT – all of which should positively re-rate SSREIT.
The odds of a re-rating has just improved
- Incidentally, Mr. Tong Jinquan who has a 6.19% interest in SSREIT also holds an 18.5% interest in CIT. With ESR joining into the fray, the combined interest of 11.2% by ESR and Mr. Tong is now just ~4.7% shy of Vibrant Group's ~12% stake together with the manager's 3.92% interest. What this means is that the fragmented minority Unitholders do appear to have a shot at removing the incumbent manager and a trigger a re-rating of the REIT.
- Investors should monitor subsequent announcements for updates on ERS's interest in SSREIT.
Reiterate our base case scenario of SSREIT being re-rated to 0.90x P/NAV
- In our original note, our base case scenario was pegged to our forward NAV/unit estimate of $0.56. We continue to peg our target price to 0.90x P/NAV. Following the Rights Issue and the announcement of FY16 results, we now estimate NAV/unit to be $0.60, giving a target price of $0.54 and an implied ~26% upside to go.
- We believe that our expectation for 0.90x P/NAV is reasonable, given that the ESR-managed CIT is currently trading at 0.91x of its $0.634 NAV/unit.
- Apart from our base case scenario, our bear case scenario is 0.8x P/NAV, or $0.48; and bull case scenario is 1.0x P/NAV, or $0.60.
- We estimate that gearing has been significantly lowered to ~36%, following the repayment of $60.0 million of short-term debt from the Rights Issue proceeds.
Richard Leow CFTe
Phillip Securities
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http://www.poems.com.sg/
2017-03-06
Phillip Securities
SGX Stock
Analyst Report
0.54
Up
0.510
