Property arm of F&N down on debut
Rachel Scully
The Straits Times
Sunday, Jan 12, 2014
THE property arm of conglomerate Fraser & Neave (F&N) made a lacklustre trading debut yesterday after a rocky path to the stock market.
Shares in Frasers Centrepoint (FCL) slipped 12.5 cents or 7.8 per cent to close at $1.485 yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of about $4.3 billion.
Almost five million shares changed hands for the real estate investment group, which was spun off from parent F&N, but not before a series of hiccups with disgruntled bondholders.
DMG & Partners analyst Goh Han Peng said the weak opening could be due to the bearish market sentiment towards real estate stocks: "Investors have been more cautious as the effects of the property cooling measures are starting to take effect in the local market.
"As FCL's listing was done by way of an introduction, there could also be some uncertainty over the fair value of the counter.
"Additionally, investors looking for pure food and beverage exposure could now sell their shares in the property spin-off while retaining the residual F&N shares."
Mr Goh noted that FCL's business is well diversified, with a good mix of commercial properties, serviced residences as well as returns from stakes in real estate investment trusts (Reits).
FCL's total assets were valued at around $10.5 billion as at Sept 30 last year, making it one of Singapore's largest property companies.
The listing was an important milestone after the unit had operated as F&N's subsidiary for more than two decades, FCL said in a statement yesterday.
FCL chief executive Lim Ee Seng said: "Besides having better corporate visibility, we will now have more flexibility to pursue our growth initiatives and strategies.
"We will also tap our controlling shareholder, TCC Group, (and its) network and expertise to explore opportunities and future collaboration."
FCL said earlier this year that Singapore will continue to be the company's home market but it is looking for opportunities in China, Australia and Thailand.
A previous Straits Times report stated that FCL was in talks to acquire and possibly manage TCC's 15 hotels outside of Thailand. Some of these properties could be injected into a hospitality Reit at some point.
F&N shareholders gave it the green light for the split last November, accepting the offer of two FCL shares for each F&N share they held.
TCC, which is owned by Thai tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, is FCL's controlling shareholder. Spinning off F&N's property arm has already unlocked value for its shareholders.
Bloomberg data showed that F&N shares closed at $6.38 on Dec 27 last year, the last trading day before the stock was split. F&N shares closed at $3.47 yesterday while FCL ended at $1.485.
As two FCL shares were given for each F&N share, an F&N investor with one share would have $6.44 of value at yesterday's closing prices, six cents higher than before the de-merger.
http://business.asiaone.com/news/propert...down-debut
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