Canadian financial services giant Manulife could revive plans to list a real estate investment trust (Reit) here after an initial public offering (IPO) fell through last year.

The firm had lodged a preliminary prospectus last June to list some of its US property assets in Manulife US Reit on the Singapore Exchange. However, the planned IPO was delayed in July as the firm cited concerns about the volatile share market.

Manulife chief financial officer Stephen Roder told a briefing yesterday that it wants to bring the Reit IPO back but "we need market conditions to be capable of taking that". He did not provide further details.

The proposed listing last year was supposed to raise gross proceeds of about $629.2 million. It would have also broken a six-month drought of new Reit listings here.

The trust was to comprise three office properties - in Washington DC, Los Angeles and Orange County, California - with an aggregate net lettable area of about 1.46 million sq ft.

Rachael Boon