In the first seven months of 2021, S-Reits have announced asset acquisitions exceeding S$7.5 billion in total purchase consideration.

Several acquisitions announced during the period were in assets such as data centres, logistic warehouses, and office buildings.

In addition, the majority of acquisitions that were announced were outside of Singapore, further entrenching Singapore's position as a global Reit hub - over 80 per cent of S-Reits' portfolios have assets that are internationally diverse.

Recent S-REIT acquisitions announced in the month of July totalled $323 million in purchase consideration and were by Ascendas India Trust, Keppel DC REIT, Keppel Pacific Oak US REIT, and Mapletree Logistics Trust.

Three out of four were overseas acquisitions and two out of four were data-centre-related acquisitions.

Ascendas India Trust announced on July 5 that it will invest an estimated S$217 million to develop and operate Phase 1 of its first fully-fitted data centre campus in Airoli, a growing data centre hub in Navi Mumbai, in India.

As such, it has announced that it will acquire a 6.6-acre greenfield site for the development which will comprise two buildings. The first building will have a built-up area of about 325,000 sq ft and is scheduled to be ready by Q2 2024.

The trust will be developing its first data centre campus with its sponsor CapitaLand and believes that its foray into the data centre sector in India will diversify its portfolio into an attractive and highly scaleable asset class.

With the acquisition and development of Phase 1 of the data centre campus, the Trust's portfolio size is expected to increase by 1.2 per cent from the approximately 24.9 million sq ft to 25.2 million sq ft.

Mapletree Logistics Trust announced on July 9 that it was granted an option to purchase a logistics property in Singapore at 9 Changi South Street. While the purpose-built facility will be sold with vacant possession, the Reit manager is in talks with an international 3PL to lease the property as an anchor tenant.

The Reit believes that the property is well-poised to benefit from Singapore's position as a key logistics hub and is an accretive acquisition with an expected stabilised property income yield of approximately 6.2 per cent.

Keppel DC Reit on July 26 announced that it has entered into agreements to acquire Guangdong Data Centre, a fully-fitted data centre in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, marking its first data centre acquisition in China.

The property, which is expected to be built in Q3 2021, is situated within the Bluesea Intelligence Valley Mega Data Centre Campus and is the first of six data centre buildings to be completed. The property will be fully leased to Guangdong Bluesea Data Development on a triple net basis for 15 years.

The acquisition is expected to increase the Reit's portfolio occupancy rate from 98.0 per cent to 98.2 per cent and weighted average lease expiry from 6.5 years to 7.3 years.

As part of this agreement, Keppel DC Reit will have the right of first refusal to acquire the remaining five data centres within the campus.

Keppel Pacific Oak US Reit announced on July 28 that it is deepening its technology footprint in key growth markets in the US with the acquisitions of Nashville and Denver office building assets.

Both office buildings - Bridge Crossing and 105 Edgeview - are 100 per cent leased to tenants mainly in the fast-growing and defensive technology sector.

They include anchor tenants Comdata, which is part of Fleetcor Group, a leading global business payment firm, and Gogo Business Aviation, which is the world's largest provider of broadband connectivity services for the business aviation market.

The Reit expects the pro-forma assets under management to grow by 8.0 per cent to approximately US$1.4 billion and the pro-forma portfolio committed occupancy to increase from 90.5 per cent to 91.2 per cent.

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