OUE Reit, UOB gauging market interest for One Raffles Place as part of asset strategy
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OUB Centre holds an 81.54 per cent stake in One Raffles Place, with UOB holding the remaining 18.46 per cent interest.
PHOTO: ST FILE
SINGAPORE - OUB Centre (OUBC) is conducting an exercise with UOB to determine market interest for One Raffles Place, which is expected to be put on the market at $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion.
This was confirmed by the manager of OUBC’s parent, OUE Real Estate Investment Trust (OUE REIT), in a Singapore Exchange filing on Feb 20. The filing was in response to a report by The Business Times on Feb 19 about a potential sale of the office and retail asset above Raffles Place MRT station.
Units of OUE REIT were trading 4.2 per cent or 1.5 cents higher at 37 cents as at 1.17pm on Feb 20, with around 8.4 million units having changed hands. UOB shares were down 0.2 per cent or six cents to $38.60, with some 746,900 shares transacted.
“As part of the manager’s proactive asset management strategy, OUBC, an indirect subsidiary of OUE REIT, is conducting an exercise together with UOB, to determine market interest for the property,” the manager of OUE REIT said in the filing.
OUBC holds an 81.54 per cent stake in One Raffles Place, with UOB holding the remaining 18.46 per cent interest, the manager added.
Meanwhile, OUE REIT holds an indirect 83.33 per cent interest in OUBC via wholly owned subsidiaries, giving it an effective stake of 67.95 per cent in One Raffles Place.
The manager clarified that there is “no assurance that any binding agreement or any transaction will materialise”.
Citing data issued by OUE REIT for its second half-year and full-year 2025 results, the BT report on Feb 19 noted that the valuation of OUBC’s 81.54 per cent stake in One Raffles Place stood at $1.93 billion as at Dec 31. This translates to $2,745 per sq ft on net lettable area.
The report added that this suggests a valuation of nearly $2.4 billion for a 100 per cent stake in the property, based on a back-of-the-envelope calculation.
One Raffles Place’s current gross floor area is close to 1.3 million sq ft, around 17 times the site area. It exceeds the 15.0 gross plot ratio for the commercial-zoned site under the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Master Plan 2025.
In its latest financial results, OUE REIT’s distribution per unit stood at 1.25 cents for the second half ended December, up 10.6 per cent year on year from 1.13 cents.
The improvement was attributed to continued resilient operating performance across the REIT’s portfolio and stronger capital structure, which the manager said enabled the trust to benefit amid a lower interest-rate environment. THE BUSINESS TIMES
