Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (MPACT) has entered into an asset sale agreement to divest Festival Walk Tower in Hong Kong for HK$1.96 billion ($328.1 million).

 

Through its subsidiary Festival Walk Limited, MPACT will divest the office component of Festival Walk called Festival Walk Tower to an unrelated third party.

 

The divestment consideration will be satisfied wholly in cash with completion targeted for Feb 2026.

 

The divestment is not expected to have material impact on MPACT&rsquo s net asset value and net property income for FY2025/2026 ended March 31. Assuming completion of the transaction on Sept 30, with net proceeds directed towards debt reduction, MPACT&rsquo s aggregate leverage would improve to 36.5% from 37.6% previously.

 

Upon completion of the divestment, MPACT&rsquo s portfolio will comprise 15 commercial properties located across five key gateway markets of Asia, with a total lettable area of 10.2 million square feet independently valued at $15.6 billion.

 

Singapore remains MPACT&rsquo s core foundation, providing long-term stability by contributing approximately 65.8% and 58.0% of MPACT&rsquo s NPI and AUM respectively.

 

Festival Walk Tower has a lettable area of 213,982 square feet with seven tenants. As at Sept 30, the property had a committed occupancy of 94.2%.

 

Following this divestment, MPACT will retain 100% ownership and operations of Festival Walk&rsquo s remaining components. The retail mall has a lettable area of 588,890 square feet and is independently valued at HK$21,777.0 million ($3,742.4 million) as at March 31, with a committed occupancy of close to 100% as at end Sept.

Over the five sessions, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust booked S$7 million in net institutional inflow, reversing close to 30 per cent of its cumulative net institutional outflows in the year to S$17.6 million. 

 

On Jul 30, the manager of Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust provided a business update for the first quarter of FY2026. Net property income (NPI) was S$166 million, lower than the S$179.4 million in Q1 FY2025. This reflected the absence of contributions from Mapletree Anson following its divestment, as well as softer performance from assets overseas. 

 

Core Singapore NPI, excluding Mapletree Anson, grew 2.9 per cent year on year, led by VivoCity&rsquo s robust 6 per cent NPI growth despite disruptions from ongoing asset enhancement initiatives (AEIs). 

 

Lower operating expenses and a 16.4 per cent decline in finance costs, driven by debt reduction, were also a cushion against overseas headwinds, resulting in a DPU of S$0.0201, down from S$0.0209 in the year-ago quarter.

 

In addition to VivoCity&rsquo s resilient performance, the Singapore portfolio was boosted by early renewals at Mapletree Business City. The Reit highlighted that proactive asset management &ndash including AEIs and proposed Japan divestments &ndash helped optimise the asset mix and mitigate risks. 

 

Share buybacks

Over the five sessions inclusive of Aug 14, a dozen primary-listed companies made buybacks with a total consideration of S$55.8 million. 

 

Keppel : BN4 -0.12% led the consideration tally, repurchasing 2.99 million of its shares at an average price of S$8.41 apiece. On Aug 11, Keppel announced that it had entered into a share-purchase agreement with Simba Telecom to divest M1&rsquo s telecommunications business. 

 

Keppel will retain M1&rsquo s fast-growing information and communications technology business, which complements the group&rsquo s integrated connectivity segment, including data centres and subsea cables. 

 

If approved, the transaction with Simba will add to Keppel&rsquo s identified S$14.4 billion non-core portfolio for monetisation, unlocking nearly S$1 billion in cash that can be redeployed for growth, debt reduction and shareholder returns.

 

Secondary-listed Hongkong Land : H78 -1.12% also continued to conduct share repurchases. 

 

Director transactions

Over the five trading sessions, close to 70 director interests and substantial shareholdings were filed. Among 30 primary-listed stocks, directors or chief executive officers reported 12 acquisitions and four disposals substantial shareholders recorded four acquisitions and two disposals. 

 

This included director or CEO filings for Credit Bureau Asia : TCU +2.26%, Far East Orchard : O10 0%, IFS Capital : I49 -3.42%, Singtel : Z74 +0.74%, Stamford Land Corporation : H07 0%, and SunMoon Food Company : AAJ 0%.