The NEX shopping mall in the northeastern Singapore town of Serangoon.
Frasers Property and its unit Frasers Centrepoint Trust—both controlled by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi—agreed to acquire a stake in a suburban shopping mall in the northeast Singapore town of Serangoon.
Charoen’s companies are acquiring a 50% stake in the property from Mercatus Co-operative—the property arm of NTUC Enterprise—for S$652.5 million ($497 million). The divestment comes on the heels of Mercatus’ sale of two other Singapore suburban shopping malls to Hong Kong’s Link REIT for S$2.16 billion in December.
“This investment in NEX further strengthens our focus in the suburban retail segment where we already have an established platform and strong capabilities,” Soon Su Lin, CEO of Frasers Property Singapore, said in a statement.
Following the acquisition, Frasers Centrepoint will have a portfolio of 10 suburban shopping malls with a combined net leasable space of almost 3 million square feet across the Lion City.
Frasers Centrepoint is expanding its footprint in Singapore where suburban shopping malls have shown resilience during the pandemic. With their close proximity to residential areas and retail offerings that include essential goods, suburban malls have been attracting more foot traffic than malls that cater to tourists in prime shopping districts. Average gross rents of suburban malls recorded a 0.7% increase year-on-year in the third quarter, compared to a 0.3% drop in the Orchard Road shopping strip during the same period, according to Knight Frank.
Charoen, 78, took control of Frasers Property—which owns residential, commercial, retail, logistics and hospitality assets across Australia, China, Europe and Southeast Asia—following his takeover of Fraser & Neave in 2013. He is also the controlling shareholder of Chang beer maker Thai Beverages and Bangkok-based hotel developer Asset World Corp. With a net worth of $11.2 billion, the self-made billionaire was ranked No. 3 when the list of Thailand’s 50 Richest when it was published in July last year.