Three local companies, CapitaMall Trust, Keppel Land and Ascendas Reit, were recognised for their high standards by the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA) at the recent APREA Best Practices Awards 2011.
CapitaMalls Trust was declared the overall winner in the Mature Markets category, with Keppel Land receiving the Highly Commended Award. Ascendas Reit received a merit award for the Mature Markets market disclosure category.
“We at APREA are proud with the extent of industry support of and participation in the APREA Best Practices Awards. These Awards help highlight the importance of APREA’s Best Practices Handbook recommendations and we believe will go a long way in addressing the issues of fragmentation in the Asian real estate market as well as influence a greater harmonisation in standards and industry practices,” said Peter Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of APREA.
“Congratulations must go out to CapitaMall Trust, Keppel Land and Ascendas Reit as industry leaders in best practices.”
The APREA Best Practices Awards are open to all property companies and trusts listed on a regional stock exchange. It saw strong response this year, with many applications from countries including Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, the Philippines and India.
At the same time, a recent APREA survey revealed that Asian-listed and unlisted property funds and companies have highly limited exposure to European banks.
The association polled about 100 listed and unlisted property companies and funds across the region and found out that most of the respondents have no European bank debt at all.
“There has recently been some speculation about the extent to which Asian real estate might be exposed to borrowings from European banks and therefore the extent to which there might be contagion from the ongoing uncertainty in Europe,” said Mitchell.
“We recognised that investors in Asia may be concerned and felt that it was important to establish a clearer picture on the exposure to European banks amongst Asian real estate funds and companies. It is reassuring to see the results and we hope that it helps investors to retain their confidence in this sector.”
To contact the journalist, you may send your message to editor@propertyguru.com.sg