Cambridge – BT
New CEO at Reit manager CITM
SINGAPORE’S first independent real estate investment trust (Reit), Cambridge Industrial Trust (CIT), will see Wilson Ang Poh Seong step down as chief executive of the Reit manager Cambridge Industrial Trust Management (CITM). He makes way for Christopher Calvert, formerly the CEO of MacarthurCook Ltd (Asia).
Mr Ang was part of the team that initiated and launched the initial public offering (IPO) of CIT in July 2006.
In February, Oxley Group, led by executive chairman Michael Dwyer (formerly chief executive and managing director of Allco), acquired an effective 20 per cent interest in CITM by procuring 33 per cent of the equity in Cambridge Real Estate Investment Management (CREIM)). Oxley’s stake was acquired from Chan Wang Kin – until then a director of CREIM and CITM – who was also part of the team that initiated the Reit. CREIM held a majority stake of 60 per cent of CITM at the time.
In August, National Australia Bank and Oxley Group formed a joint venture to take an 80 per cent stake in CITM.
Since then, Finian Tan, who was also part of the IPO team of CIT, has resigned from the board of CITM.
When contacted, Mr Ang said that he had not intended to leave CITM when Oxley first took a stake in February. However, he added that the new board will take CIT ‘to the next level’. Mr Ang, who still holds 420,000 units in the Reit, said that he has not decided on his future plans yet.
Separately, CITM said yesterday that it has reached an agreement with three banks for a $390.1 million syndicated term loan to CIT. The funds will be fully utilised to refinance all of CIT’s existing debt facilities. The three banks are HSBC, nabCapital (a division of National Australia Bank) and RBS. The effective interest rate will be about 6.6 per cent per annum including amortisation of upfront costs.
CITM said that CIT’s distribution per unit in 2009 will be reduced by about 0.9 cents per unit per annum.
In terms of forward commitments that may have required debt funding, CITM said that it has reached an agreement with the seller of 29 Tai Seng Avenue to extend the option agreement to June 30, 2009, and the completion is subject to market conditions having supported an equity fund raising by CIT. It has also reached an agreement with the seller of 75 Tuas Avenue to terminate an earlier option agreement.