Macquarie’s James Kemp Confident in Future of Newly Launched Singapore Industrial REIT

UI Boustead REIT had a rough debut on the Singapore stock exchange last week with the trust’s equity now trading 6.25 percent below its IPO price, but its chairman says the industrial specialist is well positioned for growth thanks to access to a deep pipeline of properties in two of Asia Pacific’s strongest industrial real estate markets.

James Kemp, chairman of UIB Holdings, the Macquarie Asset Management-backed sponsor of UI Boustead REIT, told Mingtiandi that Singapore and Japan are currently the two preferred markets for the platform, chosen for the strength of their underlying real estate fundamentals and the depth of institutional capital available in each.

With UIB Holdings having granted the REIT a right of first refusal over more than US$5.9 billion in assets from its sponsor pipeline in the two markets, Kemp said investor enthusiasm during the roadshow was driven above all by confidence in the sponsor’s ongoing development activity and by the quality of the properties the REIT had already assembled.

Speaking as units in the trust were trading down sharply on their first day, Kemp said the geopolitical turbulence did not reflect any change in that underlying investment case, noting that the REIT’s book had already been 3.3 times oversubscribed when US-Israeli strikes on Iran sent shockwaves through global markets on 28 February — one day after institutional orders for the IPO had opened.

Japan Opportunities Appeal

Kemp, who serves as head of real estate for Asia Pacific at Macquarie Asset Management, sees UI Boustead REIT focusing on its two home markets of Singapore and Japan for the foreseeable future, noting that while the trust holds a broad Asia Pacific mandate, the near-term case rests on the real estate fundamentals and depth of institutional capital available in those two markets.

With Japan continuing to be top target for real estate investors globally, Kemp sees positive prospects for the country’s industrial market. “For the first time in a long period, an expectation of strong rental growth in certain sub-markets in Japan, led by an imbalance between a continued demand for modern logistics space and the slowdown in supply being brought on in that market,” he said.

That supply constraint provides a meaningful tailwind for the REIT’s two freehold Japanese assets, even as their current occupancy of 76.7 percent sits below the 89.4 percent committed rate across the broader portfolio.

The Japan assets are a product of a 2021 Macquarie investment which later expanded into Singapore.  

“This is an investment that we made into the UI platform, which was a Japan platform at the time in 2021, we grew that business from 2021 to 2023 and then in 2024 we acquired the Boustead industrial development and funds management business to expand to Singapore and create UIB,” Kemp said.

That acquisition brought together Unified Industrial’s Japan logistics expertise with Boustead Projects’ track record of ground-up industrial development in Singapore, producing the combined platform that now underpins the REIT’s 23-property seed portfolio, which was valued at S$1.9 billion ($1.5 billion) at the end of 2025.

Sponsor Pipeline to Drive Growth

Beyond the IPO portfolio, Kemp pointed to UIB Holdings having granted the REIT a right of first refusal over a pipeline of more than $5.9 billion in relevant assets as having resonated with investors during the REIT’s IPO roadshow.

“The capability of the sponsor to continue to develop and create investment opportunities for the REIT was well received,” he said.

That appeal was enhanced during the book-build by the REIT’s ability to participate in the sponsor’s development activity on a case-by-case basis, rather than simply acquiring stabilised assets.

“Providing the REIT an ability to co-invest in select development or value-add assets to improve returns for the REIT and also provided primary access to buying out 100 percent of the stabilised assets is a good initiative that was well received,” Kemp said.

At present nearly two-thirds of UI Boustead REIT’s portfolio by gross rental income serves as tenants’ regional headquarters or forms a critical part of their supply chain infrastructure, anchored by well-known corporates including gaming peripherals maker Razer and pharma giant GSK.

REIT Completes Capital Cycle

Kemp framed the listing in terms that go beyond conventional REIT rationale, describing it as providing an exit ramp for investors in the development funds managed by the sponsor.

“The REIT provided listed market investors access to a high-quality portfolio while achieving liquidity for UIB’s development funds. And it hopefully now becomes a very good complement for the development and value-add activity in both Japan and Singapore with the REIT to benefit from priority access to a pipeline of investment opportunities,” he said.

UIB is one of eight real estate platforms that Macquarie Asset Management now backs across developed Asian markets in the living, logistics and data centre sectors.

Kemp noted that UIB is among the more mature of those platforms, and that some vehicles in Macquarie’s current vintage are approaching the point where exit considerations become relevant, which could open the door to future public listings, should markets provide favourable openings.