Tokyo-based real estate fund manager Re-plus Inc is in talks with bankers to list the first Singapore property trust backed by a Japanese sponsor.

Re-plus wants to list a real estate investment trust (Reit) that would include two Chinese office buildings worth at least US$400 million. Situated in Beijing, the buildings are the only overseas assets in Re-plus’s portfolio, which is valued at about 270 billion yen (S$3.4 billion).

According to a banker, The portfolio has not been finalised yet. They are in talks with several banks now, but the trust could come to the market early next year. Re-plus, valued by the market at US$482 million, already manages Re-plus Residential investment, a Reit based on rents collected from its apartments in Tokyo.

Bankers said that Re-plus wants to list its Reit in Singapore because Japanese-listed property trusts are not allowed to own foreign assets. Singapore’s Reit market – the third-largest in the Asia-Pacific after Australia and Japan – has grown to more than US$18 billion, boosted by trusts containing assets ranging from Indonesian hospitals to Chinese shopping malls.