Disappointing Private Placement Exercise By Lendlease Global Commercial REIT To Acquire Paya Lebar Quarter Mall.

This is another classic anti-existing unit-holders move by another REIT Management on SGX and extremely disappointing. I can still vividly recalled the IPO price of S$0.88 per unit by Lendlease Global Commercial REIT ("LREIT") on September 25, 2019. Unfortunately, its current market price as at November 4, 2025 is just S$0.635 per unit which is a faint shard of its former self at IPO. To add salt to injury, the Management of LREIT did not seek to raise funds first with existing unit-holders via a right issue but instead elected for a private placement. Totally no respect and appreciation to loyal current unit-holders especially those that have subscribed since IPO inception. Consequently, this lead to many loyal unit-holders, who continued to invest in LREIT, to become severely diluted by this acquisition.

1. Disappointing Private Placement By Management of LREIT

The only good news here is that on November 6, 2025 morning, LREIT has announced the results of the private fund raising at an issuance price of S$0.602 per unit, which is just a 3.7% discount to the adjusted weighted average price. Considering that the initial target was between S$0.597 per unit to S$0.616 per unit, the price of S$0.602 through private placement is considered not too low. Nevertheless, this is still an extremely disappointing move by the management of LREIT that ignored loyal retail unit-holders. 

2. General Assessment of PLQ Mall Acquisition
This is a very good retail asset that is located just besides 2 MRT lines. You would need to go down to PLQ Mall to see and experience for yourself. It is currently on 100% full occupancy.  Increasing the share of suburban retail in the portfolio of LREIT should make its earnings more resilient. 

Additionally, this acquisition of 70% of PLQ Mall will be DPU yield accretive by 2.5% post-acquisition.

The bad point of this acquisition exercise  is that the Aggregate Leverage of LREIT will increase from 35.1% to 38.3%  

Parting Thoughts

LREIT is embarking on a Singapore-focused strategy for now with Singapore assets forming close to 90% of its portfolio. Suburban retail will now made up 63% of total portfolio relative to pre-acquisition of 55%. The only remaining problem is with its "Grade A Office" of Sky Complex at Milan which has not been performing well since the loss of a major office tenant. Also, the management of LREIT has not been exactly friendly to existing unit-holders and took the easy way out of opting for a private placement route to raise funds for M&A. Retail investors need to be wary of the current management of LREIT who are only after their self interest at the expense of unit-holders. I will be looking to pare down some of my stakes in LREIT.