Property firm Overseas Union Enterprise Limited (OUE) has revealed that the Singapore Exchange (SGX) has issued the company with an "eligibility-to-list" letter for its initial public offering and listing of its impending REIT.

The firm has also revealed that the REIT, christened the OUE Hospitality REIT, will be led by Mr. Chong Kee Hiong as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Manager. Mr. Chong was previously the Chief Executive of The Ascott Limited, the serviced residence arm of Singapore-based property firm CapitaLand.

OUE Hospitality REIT will begin with an initial portfolio of two properties. However further down the road more hopitality properties may be injected.

OUE has refrained from giving any timeline to the impending listing, choosing only to state that further details of the offering will be made available in due course. However unofficial sources have revealed that OUE will begin pre-marketing activities this coming Monday and finalize a price for OUE Hospitality REIT by early July. This is then supposed to be followed by a listing by mid-July, depending on prevailing market conditions.

But anticipation of rising interest rates and uncertain market conditions may render these unofficial information inaccurate should OUE decide that the prevailing market conditions are not sufficiently conducive for its debut.

OUE Hospitality REIT will start with two properties in its portfolio. They are namely the Mandarin Orchard Singapore and Mandarin Gallery. OUE Limited is expected to net some $840 million from the listing based property valuation estimates.

Earlier today, OUE Limited has requested for a halt on the trading of its shares on the Singapore Exchange. It is believed that the halt was triggered by a story published in Business Times on the proposed REIT. The company has since submitted a request to lift the trading halt. Shares of OUE Limited closed its previous trading session at S$3.02 on the Singapore Exchange.