Cromwell's European REIT Finally Makes Its Market Debut in SIngapore

Cromwell Property Group’s Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust (CEREIT) has commenced trading after being listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited.

Units in the trust commenced trading at their offer price of 0.55 euros after making its debut on the market on Thursday.

Cromwell had pulled its first attempt for an IPO in September after an institutional bookbuild fell short of expectations.

The investment vehicle consists of about 1.4 billion euros of assets in advanced economies across Europe. The company had cut lower-yielding Polish properties from the portfolio following approaches with investors.

Cromwell controls most of the assets following its 2015 acquisition of the Valad Europe portfolio.

Cromwell CEO Paul Weightman said, “It’s the first Euro denominated REIT on the SGX-ST and the largest REIT IPO in Asia since 2013 by market capitalisation.”

“It substantially grows our global funds management platform, with a sizeable presence in Singapore, the fastest growing wealth management centre in Asia,” he said.

“CEREIT also secures approximately one third of our existing European assets under management with longer term capital, and allows us to grow our platform in Italy, the Eurozone’s third largest economy, with an additional €400 million in assets under management.”

Cromwell’s wholly-owned subsidiary Cromwell EREIT Management Pte. Ltd., the manager of CEREIT, raised gross proceeds of €865.7 million. Cromwell’s stake of 35.8%, as at the listing date, and assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised, is valued at approximately €310 million.

It follows a mixed year for Cromwell including the company being forced to sell its entire Investa Office Fund stake in October following an unsuccessful long-running takeover bid for the listed trust.