Warburg-Backed Vita Selling Singapore Assets to CapitaLand Ascendas REIT for $438M

Vita Partners, a life sciences and R&D real estate joint venture of fund manager Warburg Pincus and Australian builder Lendlease, has agreed to sell a portfolio of three industrial properties in Singapore to CapitaLand Ascendas REIT for S$565.8 million ($438.2 million), achieving its second exit less than a year and a half after it was founded.

Vita had acquired the properties as part of a $1.2 billion set of business parks and R&D facilities sold by private equity giant Blackstone and Soilbuild Group chairman Lim Chap Huat. The assets are fully occupied by 19 tenants in the technology, logistics and life sciences industries and have a weighted average lease expiry of 5.5 years with built-in rent escalations, according to a Tuesday announcement by SGX-listed CLAR.

The deal marks another quick turnaround for Vita after it was launched in July last year with a strategy to divest assets and return capital to investment partners once business plans have been executed. The platform’s seed asset, a Yokohama mall transformed into an R&D workplace called Leaf Minatomirai, was sold in March.

“This divestment reflects our ongoing commitment to unlocking value through disciplined asset management and strategic exits,” Vita CEO Bart Price told Mingtiandi. “The three high-quality assets — two industrial and one high-tech — were part of a broader portfolio we acquired alongside our capital partners. This successful transaction demonstrates our consistent focus on creating and realising value for our investors.”

Industrial Appetite

The transaction portfolio comprises 2 Pioneer Sector 1, a ramp-up logistics property, and Tuas Connection, a light industrial property, both located in western Singapore’s Jurong Industrial Estate, as well as the Qualcomm Building, a “high specifications” industrial property at 9 Kallang Sector in the city’s Kallang planning area.

The properties have a combined net leasable area of 164,525 square metres (1.8 million square feet) and an average remaining land lease tenure of 23 years. They were formerly part of SGX-listed Soilbuild Business Space REIT, which Blackstone and the Lim family which controls Soilbuild Group took private in 2021 for S$700 million. The partners sold a workshop from the former REIT portfolio to to US builder Hines and Germany’s DWS Group in 2022 before selling an unspecified number of properties to Vita Partners last year.

The sale to CLAR is expected to close by the first quarter of 2026 and comes as lower borrowing costs drive investor interest in Singapore’s industrial sector, according to CBRE, which advised on the transaction.

“With interest rates on a downward trajectory, investors are increasingly looking to deploy capital into defensive asset classes,” said Rimon Ambarchi, CBRE’s head of South East Asia industrial and logistics. “Industrial real estate, with its stable returns and widening yield spreads, is firmly on their radar.”

Hometown Focus

The proposed buy aligns with CLAR’s strategy to anchor its portfolio in Singapore, coming on the heels of the REIT’s acquisition of 9 Tai Seng Drive, a co-location data centre, and 5 Science Park Drive, the headquarters building of e-commerce player Shopee, in a S$724.6 million deal completed in August.

That same month, the trust announced the sale of four light industrial facilities in Singapore for S$329 million. Sources familiar with the transaction identified the buyer as EZA Hill, a portfolio company of Hillhouse Investment’s Rava Partners.

“CLAR continues to strengthen its presence in Singapore with a total investment of approximately S$1.3 billion in 2025,” said William Tay, CEO and executive director of the REIT’s manager, which is owned by Temasek-controlled CapitaLand Investment.

CLAR’s Singapore portfolio will see its value rise to S$12.3 billion with the addition of the Vita properties, according to the manager, with Lion City properties set to represent 68 percent of total assets under management.

CLAR is making the acquisition amidst rising investor interest in Singapore-listed REITs, with analysts pointing to declining interest rates and a healthy Singapore market driving a recovery in the sector.

“We believe S-REITs have turned the corner with a brighter 2026 outlook – aided by a moderating interest rate outlook, resilient economy, and government policies to revitalise the local market,” Vijay Natarajan, an analyst covering Singapore real estate and REITs for RHB Banking Group said in a report earlier this month. “Fund flows and investor interest in S-REITs have markedly improved amidst strong SGD
liquidity and lower alternate yield options.”

Centurion Corp raised more than S$771 million in a Singapore REIT IPO last month, and Macquarie Asset Management-controlled UI Boustead filed to list an industrial REIT on the SGX last month.