Mr Viral
5 Science Park Drive is home to Shopee’s head office (Image: CapitaLand Ascendas REIT)
CapitaLand Ascendas REIT has agreed to buy the headquarters building of e-commerce player Shopee and a co-location data centre for a total of S$700.2 million ($543.6 million), as the SGX-listed trust seeks to grow its portfolio with tech-driven assets.
The pair of Singapore properties are being acquired from private trusts held by Temasek-owned CapitaLand Group, according to a Wednesday stock filing. The agreed value for the Shopee head office at 5 Science Park Drive in Queenstown is S$245 million, while the consideration for the data centre at 9 Tai Seng Drive in Hougang is S$455.2 million.
The acquisitions will further anchor CLAR in the city-state, which stands as the portfolio’s cornerstone in developed markets, said William Tay, CEO and executive director of the REIT’s manager, which is owned by CapitaLand Investment.
“These strategic additions will increase the share of Singapore in CLAR’s portfolio to approximately 67 percent of total assets under management,” Tay said in a release.
Betting on Tech
Built in 2019, 5 Science Park Drive is part of CapitaLand’s Geneo life sciences and innovation cluster in Singapore Science Park 1. Shopee, the e-commerce arm of Singaporean tech giant Sea Ltd, leased the entire net lettable area of 22,488 square metres (242,059 square feet) before the project was finished.
William Tay of CapitaLand Ascendas REIT
The six-storey building connects to Kent Ridge MRT station and has a remaining land lease tenure of 56 years. CLAR also holds a 34 percent stake in nearby 1 Science Park Drive, a three-building campus completed in March.
The acquisition of 9 Tai Seng Drive is set to expand CLAR’s data centre assets by 32.8 percent to S$1.9 billion, including 54 percent in Singapore (S$1 billion) and 46 percent in Europe (S$0.9 billion). The 2019-vintage facility is designed to Tier 3 standards, which require redundant and dual-powered servers, network links and other components, and its 6,968 square metres of NLA is fully leased by end users in the digital, e-commerce and financial services industries.
The Shopee building is changing hands at a 7 percent discount to an independent valuation, while the data centre is trading at a 2.2 percent discount.
Upon completion, the acquisitions will increase CLAR’s asset count to 232, including 98 in Singapore, and boost the value of the Lion City portfolio by 6.6 percent to S$11.7 billion, according to the manager. The transactions are expected to close in the second half of 2025.
“Both properties are expected to contribute positively to long-term returns with the potential for organic growth through rental uplifts and asset enhancement opportunities,” Tay said.
US Logistics Deals
The latest additions to the CLAR portfolio follow the trust’s recent acquisition of a warehouse in the US state of Indiana from logistics giant DHL for S$150.3 million.
DHL will lease back the property’s 979,649 square feet (91,012 square metres) of gross floor area until December 2035, with options to renew for two additional five-year terms. The lease for DHL Indianapolis Logistics Center features built-in yearly rent escalations of 3.5 percent to provide income stability.
Last November, CLAR announced that it would acquire its first logistics development project in the US at a site in South Carolina for a total investment cost of S$94.8 million.
