KUALA LUMPUR (July 3): Yesterday, IGB Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) announced that its proposed listing on July 30 will now be delayed to Sept 20 as investor sentiment was battered by the prolonged lockdown in the country.

The REIT is also proposing to downsize its institutional offering to a minimum of 130 million units from an earlier planned 282 million units, which will lower the minimum public unitholding spread to 20% from 25%.

Nonetheless, with an expected market capitalisation of RM2.31 billion upon listing, it is set to be the largest stand-alone office REIT as well as the sixth-largest REIT on Bursa Malaysia.

Can the initial public offering (IPO) draw investor interest? The REIT projects a distribution yield of 3.9% for 2021, improving to 5% for 2022.

In a recent exclusive interview with IGB Bhd group chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Seri Robert Tan Chung Meng, we questioned the decision to list when the local economy had almost come to a halt because of the reimposition of a full lockdown.

Was he concerned that demand for office space will shrink in a new normal? What about the pressure on rental revisions?

In an accompanying story, Tan talks about IGB’s plans for other business segments moving forward.

We also take a look at how the office REITs in Malaysia performed last year in terms of net property income, the occupancy rate, distribution yield and share price movement.

Read more about it in The Edge Malaysia weekly’s July 5 edition.