Singapore – Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd today announced that, Mapletree Trustee Pte Ltd, as trustee of Mapletree-REIT (Mapletree), has signed a letter of offer and acceptance with Boustead Projects Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Boustead Singapore Limited, with a view to acquire three of its logistics and warehousing-cum-light industrial facilities for a total sum of approximately S$52.5 million. These three buildings are located at 60 Alps Avenue, 61 Alps Avenue and Tai Seng Avenue. The proposed acquisitions are subject to, amongst other things, the approval of Boustead’s shareholders and the finalisation of the relevant legal documents.

Upon completion of the acquisitions, existing leases, which range between 5 and 10 years, in the three buildings, will be assigned to Mapletree. Boustead, which is one of the most well known and experienced builders of logistics and industrial properties in Singapore had designed and custom built all three buildings for single tenant occupancies.

The building at 60 Alps Avenue is a 2-year old, 5-storey building with a gross floor area of approximately 136,000 sq ft and a land area of about 133,250 sq ft. 61 Alps Avenue is a 4-storey logistics facility for freight forwarding and contract logistics services. It is less than 10 months’ old with a gross floor area of approximately 133,000 sq ft and sits on a land area of about 111,000 sq ft. The building at Tai Seng Avenue is a 5-storey warehousing cum light industrial building with a gross floor area of about 111,000 sq ft and a land area of approximately 44,400 sq ft. It is currently under construction with an expected TOP date at end 2004. All three buildings are wholly tenanted by first class international logistics and multinational companies.

This package deal would bring the number of Mapletree’s acquisitions of logistics related facilities to five this year. On 6 July 2004, Mapletree signed a letter of offer and acceptance with KLW Holdings to purchase its corporate headquarters at Senoko Loop for S$15.6 million, and on 3 May 2004 it signed a put and call option with Teckwah Industrial Corporation Ltd to purchase TIC Tech Centre for S$48 million. These acquisitions are part of Mapletree’s strategy to build up a portfolio of quality logistics-related assets worth up to S$1 billion for its logistics REIT to be launched within the next 12 months.

Mr Hiew Yoon Khong, CEO of Mapletree said, “This is a strategic deal for us reflecting our role as the real estate partner to some of the top multinational and logistics companies in the world. We see this deal as the start of a synergistic partnership with these international companies, supporting them in their real estate infrastructure needs both in Singapore and growing with them in the region.”