Singapore Landlords Discover Perpetual Debt Is the New Equity. Bloomberg By Christopher Langner, David Yong and Pooja Thakur. 17 Nov 2015

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore landlords are loading up on bonds masked as equity to get around new rules curbing their debt amid a property slump.

Real-estate investment trusts issued a record S$700 million ($492 million) of perpetual notes with no set maturity date in 2015 and they’re likely to sell more, according to Fitch Ratings. The Monetary Authority of Singapore is capping borrowings of REITs at 45 percent of assets from next year and debt that can be considered equity offers landlords a way of complying with the stricter rules.

Falling values, rents and occupancies for debt-backed properties could tip Singapore’s economy further into trouble amid the slowest growth in three years. Office rents may fall as much as 7 percent this year and another 8 percent in 2016 as demand slows, according to DTZ, while house prices keep declining. Global non-financial companies seeking to cut their leverage have issued more than $50 billion of perpetuals this year.

"With the lower leverage threshold, there might be more Singapore REITs who will look to tap this source of funding given it is still treated as equity instead of debt," said Singapore-based Tim Gibson, co-head of global property equities at Henderson Global Investors Ltd. His firm manages about $123 billion worldwide. “Investors continue to seek yield in this environment.”

On Oct. 26, office landlord Keppel REIT sold S$150 million of perpetual bonds without a so-called step-up coupon, a gradually rising interest rate that’s usually a feature of such bonds. It sold the notes at 4.98 percent, 183 basis points more than seven-year debt it sold in February. In the same month, business park owner Ascendas REIT raised S$300 million issuing similar notes, while apartments specialist Ascott Residence Trust issued S$250 million of them in June.

Under global accounting rules, bonds with no fixed maturity that allow the deferral of coupon payments may be treated as equity. Singapore regulators will insist REITs’ notes meet those requirements, as well as having no step-up in interest rates and being subordinate to other creditors. While such features reduce the allure for investors, they benefit property owners when falling asset values cause their leverage to rise.

The value of Singapore’s office buildings fell 0.1 percent in the quarter ending Sept. 30 from the previous three months while shops declined 0.3 percent, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority. House prices dropped 1.3 percent, the most since the second quarter of 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“Most Singapore listed REITS have good credit quality,” said Neel Gopalakrishnan, an emerging markets fixed income analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG’s private banking and wealth management unit in Singapore. “Hence, there is likely to be good demand” for their perpetuals.

Rising Leverage

Singapore’s more than 30 listed REITs had an average debt to asset ratio of 34.6 percent at the end of September, versus 32.8 percent from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. OUE Hospitality Trust had the highest leverage at about 41.9 percent, up from 32.4 percent over that time. It didn’t respond to e-mail and phone calls seeking comment.

Frasers Hospitality Trust’s, whose leverage stood at 38.9 percent versus 39.1 percent on March 31, maintains a prudent approach to capital management strategy and would employ an appropriate mix of debt and equity to maximize returns to shareholders, it said by e-mail on Monday.

The new cap on REITs’ borrowings takes effect from Jan. 1, and leaves smaller room for some to take on new debt to fund acquisitions or repair their balance sheets, according to Fitch. The threshold replaces existing limits of 60 percent for rated trusts and 35 percent for those without a credit score, the Monetary Authority of Singapore decided in July.

Still Room

Singapore’s listed REITs could issue as much as S$12.5 billion of traditional debt without breaching the new threshold, Hasira De Silva, a Singapore-based analyst at Fitch said in an interview. That leeway narrows to S$7.5 billion if their S$110 billion of assets suffer a 10 percent depreciation, he said. That’s based on their 34 percent leverage at the end of September.

“The perpetual will be used by Singapore REITs in 2016 to fix balance sheets as required, because we expect more pressure on asset values then,” De Silva said.

Buyers of the notes will tend to be individuals rather than funds, according to Deutsche Bank AG. That could translate into higher volatility.

“Most of the demand for Singapore dollar perpetuals has been from retail investors,” said Vishal Goenka, head of local currency credit in Singapore at Deutsche Bank. “As issuance of perpetuals picks up in future, caution is advised in a higher interest-rate environment.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Langner in Singapore at clangner@bloomberg.net; David Yong in Singapore at dyong@bloomberg.net; Pooja Thakur in Singapore at pthakur@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Monahan at amonahan@bloomberg.net Chris Bourke

Source: https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/singapore-landlords-discover-perpetual-debt-160001935.html