Singapore – Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd (“Mapletree”) today announced that ITOCHU Corporation (“ITOCHU”) has acquired a 2% stake for about S$15 million (approximately ¥900 million) from Mapletree in Mapletree Industrial Trust (“MIT”). MIT is a private real estate fund sponsored by Mapletree that was set up to hold the S$1.71 billion portfolio of high-rise, ready-built industrial properties acquired from JTC Corporation (“JTC”) on 1 July 2008.

With ITOCHU’s acquisition, Mapletree’s direct stake of 25.1% has been reduced to 23.1%. The other stakeholders of MIT are Arcapita Bank B.S.C.(c), which holds 56.5%, and Mapletree Industrial Fund (“MIF”), a pan-Asian private real estate industrial fund sponsored by Mapletree, which holds the balance 18.4%.

Mr Phua Kok Kim, CEO (Industrial) of Mapletree said, “We are pleased to further strengthen Mapletree’s alliance with ITOCHU by having them on board as a stakeholder in Mapletree Industrial Trust. ITOCHU’s investment not only underlines their confidence in MIT’s high quality portfolio of assets, but also deepens our strategic alliance forged since October 2005 to collaborate on logistics, industrial, retail and commercial real estate sector classes in Japan, Singapore and the rest of Asia. We look forward to more of such collaborations with ITOCHU for our mutual benefit.“

Mr Yoichi Sonoda, General Manager, Construction & Realty Department No. 2 of ITOCHU said, “This investment is ITOCHU’s first real estate-related one in Singapore since 1997. It therefore represents a landmark in ITOCHU’s ambition to re-focus on Asia Pacific markets outside Japan as well as our strategic partnership with Mapletree. The scale and quality of Mapletree Industrial Trust is a significant start for us as we seek to expand our investments and presence across Asia, and offer ITOCHU’s global network of companies to our partner.”

Mapletree first formed a strategic alliance with ITOCHU in October 2005 to collaborate on logistics and industrial real estate projects in Asia. In November 2007, Mapletree and ITOCHU extended its collaboration to retail and commercial real estate and ITOCHU’s acquisition of a stake in MIT is its first investment in a Mapletree-sponsored property fund.

The properties acquired from JTC were officially transferred to MIT on 1 July 2008. They comprise 39 blocks of flatted factories, 12 amenity centres, six stack-up and one ramp-up buildings, three multi-tenanted business park buildings (the Synergy & the Strategy at the InternationalBusinessPark and the Signature at the ChangiBusinessPark) and one warehouse building. Mapletree’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Mapletree Industrial Fund Management Pte Ltd, is the manager of the properties.