Sunway Real Estate Investment Trusts (Sunway REITs) will emerge as Malaysia's largest REIT when it is listed in July.

It's initial public offering (IPO) of 1.65 billion units at RM0.97 per unit, comprising an institutional and selected investors portion of 1.52 billion units and a retail portion of 134 million, will also make it the largest IPO on the local bourse to date.

The REIT, by Sunway City Bhd, has an approved fund size of 2.78 billion units.

Chairman and founder of Sunway Group Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah said eight Sunway properties, with an appraised value of RM3.7 billion, would be injected into the REIT.

They are the Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall, Sunway Carnival Shopping Mall, SunCity Ipoh Hypermarket, Sunway Resort Hotel and Spa, Pyramid Tower Hotel, Sunway Hotel Seberang Jaya, Menara Sunway and Sunway Tower.

'As Sunway has expanded its businesses to China, India, Australia and Cambodia, the reach of the 'Sunway' brand will continue to grow and we believe this will further benefit Sunway REIt in the future,' he said at the launch of Sunway REIT's prospectus by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop.

He said Sunway also managed to secure cornerstone investors in the likes of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) and Great Eastern Life Assurance.

The four cornerstone investors have secured 376 million units or approximately 22.7 per cent of the offer units.

At a press conference later, Nor Mohamed said he was very pleased with the group''s success in attracting foreign institutional investors.

'This is exactly what we need to realise the M-REIT market's true potential, and it will be the barometer for the market's potential and at the same time, attract the attention of international investments into our equity market,' he added.

Meanwhile, the Sunway REIT will hold a portfolio of properties comprising shopping malls, office towers and hotels within master-planned, integrated townships in Malaysia's high growth region.

Total assets under management in the Malaysian REIT market is estimated around RM9.3 billion. - Bernama