CapitaLand Commercial Trust sold Tanjong Pagar property for $516m

The 20-storey Twenty Anson has a total net lettable area of about 206,000 sq ft.

CapitaLand Commercial Trust Management (CCT) sold 20-storey Twenty Anson for $516m. The transaction for the office property done through trustee HSBC Institutional Trust Services is eyed to be completed by 3Q 2018, an announcement revealed.

With a sheltered access to Tanjong Pagar MRT station, Twenty Anson has a total net lettable area of about 206,000 sq ft that accounted 3% of CCT’s net property income. Its committed occupancy rate is 94.3% with top tenants that include Toyota Motor Asia, BlackRock Advisors, and BCD Travel Asia Pacific.

“The divestment of Twenty Anson is in line with CCT’s proactive strategy to reconstitute the trust’s portfolio and optimise returns for our unitholders,” CCT CEO Kevin Chee said.

Through a bidding process, the price deal is 19.2% above the 31 December 2017 valuation of $433.0 million and 20.0% higher than CCT’s purchase price of $430.0 million in 2012 giving a net property income of $13.8m to the company.

Assuming net divestment proceeds will be used to repay the existing debt of the firm, Lee thinks that CCT’s pro-forma aggregate leverage would drop from 37.9% as at 31 March 2018 to 34.5%.

“We will continue to explore opportunities to enhance our portfolio as demonstrated by our ongoing development of CapitaSpring in Singapore and acquisition of Gallileo in Frankfurt, Germany,” he added.

Upon sales completion, CCT’s portfolio will include 10 properties with a total net lettable area of 4.7 million sq ft across sub-markets of Singapore’s CBD including Raffles Place, Marina Bay, Tanjong Pagar and City Hall, as well as the Banking District in Frankfurt, Germany.