Mapletree Commercial Trust – BT

Mapletree Commercial Trust gearing up for $1b IPO?

MAPLETREE Commercial Trust, the owner of properties including VivoCity, hired banks for a $1 billion initial share sale this quarter, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

The trust, a unit of Mapletree Investments Pte, hired CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, Citigroup Inc, DBS Group Holdings Ltd, Deutsche Bank AG, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc as advisers on the sale, the person said, asking not to be identified as details are private.

Mapletree Commercial Trust's listing would follow a similar sale by Mapletree's industrial property unit, Mapletree Industrial Trust Ltd, which raised $938.5 million in October.

Mapletree Industrial units, sold to investors at 93 Singapore cents, closed one cent down at $1.06 yesterday.

The chief financial officer of Mapletree Investments, Wong Mun Hoong, said in October that Mapletree Commercial Trusts' initial public offering (IPO) would be ready by the first half of 2011.

The Wall Street Journal reported the IPO yesterday, citing people it didn't identify.

Mapletree Investments is the real estate unit of investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. — Bloomberg