SINGAPORE - Mapletree Investments (“Mapletree” or “the Group”) reported a sustained revenue of S$2.8 billion and Recurring PATMI¹ of S$715.6 million in Financial Year 2023/2024 (“FY23/24”), which ended 31 March 2024. Despite the challenging environment, the Group reported a resilient operating result due to improved operating performance, coupled with the Group’s capital recycling and fund syndication activities.

Mr Hiew Yoon Khong, Group Chief Executive Officer of Mapletree said, “Against the uncertainty in the market, Mapletree’s ability to adapt to unprecedented changes while maintaining its operational, financial and investment discipline underpinned its resilient performance. Our assets under management (“AUM”) held steady at about S$77.5 billion with the completion of acquisitions and development projects in the logistics, office and data centre sectors across Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam.”

Elevated interest rates across the markets globally have resulted in expansion in real estate capitalisation rates in most markets and in turn, have resulted in revaluation losses for the year. The prolonged work from home trend has also negatively impacted commercial properties in most Western markets. In fact, for Mapletree, a substantial portion of assets valuation decline is within the office portfolios especially in the United States (“US”), Europe and Australia markets. The rest of the asset classes have been relatively stable. These non-operational losses have impacted our overall profitability for the year with negative PATMI¹ of S$(577.2) million. The Group maintained prudent hedging practices and improved its operating performance to optimise its earnings, and mitigated revaluation pressures with contributions from its better performing assets in Asia as well as logistics. 

In spite of global market volatility, Mapletree’s EBIT + SOA², excluding the impact of fund syndications and divestments, remained stable on the back of ongoing recovery in the Southeast Asia markets. As a result of the Group’s active capital management strategy, the Group’s cash reserves and committed undrawn facilities remained strong at S$12.3 billion as at 31 March 2024.  

In FY23/24, the Group continued to deepen its focus on defensive asset classes and markets with an emphasis on strengthening the balance sheet; recording a lower net debt/equity ratio of 59% as compared to 64% a year ago. This will allow the Group to be in a good position to capitalise on growth opportunities. Logistics remained as the Group’s largest asset class at 41% of overall AUM. Efforts to scale up its global logistics portfolio included its first land acquisition in Chennai, India in February 2024, and the introduction of Mapletree Chikushino Logistics Centre Phase 1 in July 2023. The latter marked the Group’s entry into the Japanese logistics real estate market in Kyushu. The Group also completed the development of 17 logistics parks in China. 

Another core asset class the Group focused on is data centres, which made up eight per cent of the Group’s overall AUM in FY23/24. Mapletree Industrial Trust (“MIT”) marked its entry into Japan with its first acquisition of a newly-built data centre in Osaka, Japan, for JPY52 billion (~S$468.8 million)³ in September 2023. This has enlarged its presence in the resilient data centre sector and diversified its portfolio geographically into one of the most developed data centre markets in Asia Pacific.

FY23/24 also marked the end of the Group’s third Five-Year Plan with the group capping off with positive results. The Group’s recycled proceeds increased from S$17.8 billion to S$19.3 billion, while fee income stood at S$2.3 billion due to its active capital management business and resilient student housing portfolio. 

“The last Five-Year Plan saw Mapletree sharpening our focus on our core real estate sectors by expanding our global presence and establishing onshore teams with expertise to deliver on the Group’s real estate value chain. Our global market and sectoral diversification have been key in supporting the Group through various market conditions, enabling Mapletree to grow our AUM by 39% from S$55.7 billion in FY18/19 to S$77.5 billion in FY23/24. Looking ahead, with a strong balance sheet, the Group will continue to prioritise and strengthen our focus on core sectors by embarking on more development projects, launching more development funds, and continuing our operational expertise to deliver high quality assets that will generate consistently attractive returns,” added Mr Hiew.

Post-FY23/24, Mapletree aims to navigate the current challenging landscape by maintaining a prudent and selective investment approach, prioritising focus on core sectors – logistics, student housing, data centres and offices – in key markets with good growth potential, leveraging on its development capabilities, while delivering on active capital management. During the year, the Group reduced its stake in Mapletree Logistics Trust (“MLT”) to 25.8% resulting in a deconsolidation of MLT. 

Kicking-off FY24/25, the Group deepened its student housing footprint with the acquisition of 31 assets across 19 cities in the United Kingdom (“UK”) and Germany, as well as an operating platform from Cuscaden Peak Investments for £1 billion (~S$1.7 billion)³ in April 2024. The acquisition is part of Mapletree’s strategy to capitalise on the sector’s defensive characteristics while expanding its presence in the UK, the US, Europe and Australia, which remain underserved by quality student housing assets. With this acquisition, the Group’s AUM currently stands at S$79.1 billion.

Mapletree also closed its second Japan logistics development fund – Mapletree Japan Investment Country Private Trust (“MAJIC”) in April 2024, which is expected to achieve over JPY110 billion (~S$1 billion)⁴ in AUM, after full deployment and all development projects are completed. MAJIC leverages the Group’s strong on-the-ground presence and development capabilities to ensure a robust pipeline of logistics properties to meet the country’s growing demand for modern logistics facilities.

Demand for high-quality offices in prime locations is expected to rise as more workers return to the workplace. The Group will explore suitable opportunities to acquire prime office spaces in key gateway cities that are less impacted by remote work while keeping its current portfolio competitive.

Mapletree remains committed to long term value creation for its stakeholders and investors. Real estate is inherently a local business, and the Group has made significant progress in building up its onshore teams to develop, manage and operate in the respective local markets to drive long- term growth. Mapletree continues to focus on strengthening its balance sheet to position the Group to be able to capitalise on opportunities in the markets where investment conditions and prospects have normalised. The strategic measures Mapletree is implementing across the Group are expected to bolster its resilience and result in sustained growth for this fourth Five-Year Plan.  

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Additional information on key highlights:
Prudent Capital Management and Portfolio Rejuvenation:

• Mapletree Logistics Trust (“MLT”) completed a string of acquisitions to rejuvenate its portfolio to include modern assets with high specifications. This included nine modern Grade A logistics assets in India, Japan, Australia and South Korea for S$918 million and the proposed acquisition of three Grade A logistics assets in Malaysia and Vietnam from its Sponsor for S$234 million. The real estate investment trust (“REIT”) also completed the divestments of seven properties in Malaysia, Japan and Singapore, with two divestments in Malaysia pending completion. These transactions amount to more than S$200 million, which will be redeployed to investments in more modern logistics properties. 
• MIT marked its entry into Japan with its first acquisition of a newly-built data centre in Osaka, Japan, for JPY52 billion (~S$468.8 million)³. MIT completed the divestment of the Tanglin Halt Cluster for S$50.6 million, which will provide MIT with greater financial flexibility to pursue other growth initiatives. 
• MPACT’s Singapore portfolio, anchored by flagship assets, VivoCity and Mapletree Business City, continued to achieve fruitful results. VivoCity’s tenant sales reached new heights and exceeded last year’s record at close to S$1.1 billion. Further, the transformation of a portion of the Level 1 space (previously occupied by TANGS) into a vibrant retail zone generated over 20% of return on investment⁵. Building on this success, VivoCity reconfigured a food and beverage cluster on Level 1, expanding its culinary offerings and adding an indoor refreshment area. Completed and opened in Q3 FY23/24, this initiative had a return on investment of over 20%⁶.

Commitment to Sustainability:
To reduce the impact of its business on the environment and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the Group has embarked on several economic, social and governance initiatives in FY23/24, including:

• Securing six green and sustainable financing facilities totalling S$1.3 billion 
• Obtaining more than 300 green building certifications across Mapletree assets globally
• Planting over 20,000 trees across its assets globally, with an aim to plant another 10,000 by the end of FY24/25 to reach one-third of its 100,000 trees target by 2030
• Aligning its sustainability and climate reporting to Global Reporting Initiative standards and Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures recommendations, as well as improved its GRESB benchmark ratings 
• Implementation of a new environmental data management system to enhance the tracking of our carbon footprint
• Establishing the Group’s decarbonisation pathway to achieve net zero by 2050. This includes developing an Embodied Carbon Framework and setting an operational carbon baseline
• Making our inaugural reporting as a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI)
• Achieving over 100 megawatt-peak of onsite renewable energy installed capacity, and target to achieve 200 megawatt-peak by 2030

In July 2023, Mapletree entered the Japanese logistics real estate market in Kyushu with the completion of Mapletree Chikushino Logistics Centre Phase 1. 

In September 2023, MIT completed the acquisition of a data centre in Osaka, Japan.

In April 2024, Mapletree completed the acquisition of 31 student housing assets which included Student Castle Oxford,
a 515-bed student housing asset located adjacent to Oxford’s city centre railway station.

 1 PATMI denotes net profit (after tax and non-controlling interests) attributable to Perpetual Securities Holders and Equity Holder of the Company.
 2 Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) plus share of operating profit or loss of associated companies and joint ventures (SOA), excluding revaluation gains or losses, divestment gains or losses, foreign exchange and derivatives gains or losses.
 3 S$ exchange rate as at date of acquisition. 
 4 S$ exchange rate as at fund inception.
 5 Based on revenue on a stabilised basis and capital expenditure of approximately S$10 million.
 6 Based on revenue on a stabilised basis and capital expenditure of approximately S$0.9 million.