OUE Commercial REIT's OUE Bayfront in Singapore. (Photo: REITsWeek)

Property developer OUE Limited has formally acquired 203,145,000 units of Singapore-listed office REIT, OUE Commercial REIT (SGX:TS0U), the company disclosed in a 26 February filing with the Singapore Exchange.

The units were acquired through through a wholly-owned subsidiary of OUE Limited known as Clifford Development Pte Ltd. OUE Limited is the sponsor of OUE Commercial REIT.

OUE Limited announced earlier in the week that it has entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Chinese property tycoon Gordon Tang for the units on a “willing buyer, willing seller” basis.

“The acquisition will allow OUE to enhance its stake in OUE Commercial REIT and, through this, OUE can participate in and derive a stable income stream from OUE Commercial REIT’s regular and growing distributable income”, said OUE Limited in its statement on 23 February.

The units were acquired for a cash consideration of SGD165.97 million, translating to about SGD0.82 paid per unit.

With the completion of the acquisition, OUE Limited now has a deemed interest in 837.9 million units of OUE Commercial REIT of which 33.7 million units are held by OUE Commercial REIT Management Pte Ltd, which is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of OUE Limited. The total unit holdings represent a stake of approximately 64.98%.

Units of OUE Commercial REIT finished the trading day about 1.5% lower from its previous close on the Singapore Exchange to end at SGD0.655.

By Ridzwan Rahmat

Ridzwan has been analysing REITs and business trusts since 2008, and personally manages a portfolio comprising mainly of SGX-listed REITs. He founded REITsWeek in 2013.