European investors drove the spread on Ascendas real estate investment trust's first securitization offer to a rock-bottom 33bp on Friday. The five-year 144 million commercial mortgage-backed securitization CMBS priced just one point higher than CapitaMall's US dollar offer earlier in the week.
Like its better-known counterpart A-Reit is recognized by investors as a solid, professionally run company, but the industrial assets it owns are not as attractive as the retail properties owned by CapitaMall. Indeed, this is the first attempt by a Singapore originator to sell bonds backed by industrial properties and also the first securitization from A-Reit, offered under its medium-term note programme through a special-purpose vehicle called...