A fortunate series of events - AIMS, Mapletree, Soilbuild, Cambridge, Ascendas and Sabana Reits

I am "Old Cow Eat Tender Grass" a.k.a SGDividends

HYST called me and shouted:" May the year of the Rooster see you lose lots and lots of money and after losing all your money, lose your hair too! Just because you gave me $2 and a bunch of expired discount vouchers with minimum spend of $88.... You suck!"

She slammed the phone, before i could retort and say :" It was just a joke, look at your DBS paylah, i put $88 in it......."

A bad joke, which reminded me of the Bee Gees song.

"I started a joke which started the whole world crying. 

But I didn't see that the joke was on me oh no 

 I started to cry which started the whole world laughing 

 Oh If I'd only seen that the joke was on me......."

OK, on a serious note. Are the gripes of the shareholders against Sabana unjustified? Are they a bunch of people who lose money then kao peh kao bu? Is this just an "old cow who eats tender grass" just a blind following the blind? To answer the above questions, I compiled the following tables just so one can see clearly the alignment between a REIT and its shareholders.

Sabana

While the DPU and distributable income decreases over the years from 2013 onwards to 2015, their management fees increases over the years. Does this show alignment with unitholders?

Other industrial REITS

Since people always like to say industry practice, so lets industry practice it. Let's compare with the other industrial REITS.

Ascendas is really solid. While DPU increases, the management fees decreases. Good job!

Aim's fees track their DPU. As DPU rises, fee rises. While DPU drops, fee drops. OK, you win.

Cambridge is an oddball, in that 2013 was an especially 'HUAT' year for the managers but thats because they had an extremely large performance fee due to beating a certain index. But in general, as their DPU decreases, their fees decrease too.

Mapletree is pretty good. While they increase their fees, they increased their DPU. Fair enough.

Soildbuid is doing ok. Similar to Aims, as fees increases, DPU increases. As fees decreases, DPU decreases. Justified.

Yes i am watching.

Exercise your rights and join forces.

REMOVAL OF THE MANAGER OF SABANA REIT

http://sabanareit.blogspot.sg/

Sabana Reit - At the cusp of an epoch

HSYT

HSYT keeps saying my english sucks and i am unintelligible. Hence, the need of a nice cheem title to show that i have some class in my english. Anyway, HSYT came to collect angbao from me today and before she left, she muttered the following under her fragrant breath, just to rankle and jiggle this old brain of mine.( got class?)

“

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

”

Aha! Old Uncle who likes to eat soft grass immediately linked up what she was trying to say!That little limkumput of a HSYT!Luckily only gave you $2 for your angbao ,padded with massage and skincare vouchers with minimum spend of $88 bucks.. TAKE THAT!

So back to the Sabana story which i just recently bought just to support the movement. Unlike others who have lost money, i did not.

SO WHY SO KAYPOH?

I own many other counters, including a splattering ( got class?) of REITs. I thought that if we could make this a precedent (got class?) , it will bode well for minority shareholders in that we would not be taken advantage of for all other REITS or companies. It doesn't cost much to have a voice. It cost only $37 ( 100 shares ) to make your voice heard and start making all REIT managers or companies more accountable.

Fees, Fees,Fees, Heads i win, Tails i still win

Let's look how misaligned a REIT is to the unitholders. 

(below is summarised from Sabana IPO prospectus. Nearly all REITS have a similar structure if not identical)

Base Fee  

Up to 0.5% per annum of the value of the Deposited Property.

Performance Fee 

0.5% per annum of net property income if it achieves at least 10.0% in annual growth in DPU over the previous financial year

Acquisition Fee 

1% of acquisition price

Divestment Fee 

0.5% of sale price

**Any acquisition or divestment of properties do not need unitholders to vote

Now, how could a REIT manager game the system to earn more money?  

If the REIT gearing is low, i could borrow more money to acquire a lot of properties and increase  the DPU at the same time, increasing my base fee, netting performance fee and earning acquisition fee.

If the REIT gearing is nearing the regulatory limit of 45%,  I can issue rights or issue perpetual bonds to purchase new properties to increase my value of deposited properties to increase my base fee, and earn acquisition fee.I could also divest properties, netting some divestment fee in the process.

Will it be to my benefit to work hard to negotiate a lower price for the new property purchases?NO. Since the higher the acquisition fee, the more i earn as i earn 1% on the price, but better to play safe by buying at market value based on independent consultant's assessment so that i have evidence to back me.

Do i care if the purchased property i buy is lousy? Not really, since i can always dispose of it and earn the divestment fee.

Would it benefit me to spend money to do Asset Enhancement ( AEIs) so as to retain or attract new tenants? Not really, if it's unoccupied, maybe it's better and i can now justify its disposal and earn the divestment fee.

What happens if the DPU or share price goes down eventually? I am still earning the base fee, acquisition fee and divestment fee. I can't be fired. Heck the performance fee, it's too much work to find tenants, market the properties and retain tenants just to earn the miserly 10% of net property income.

WHERE IS THE ACCOUNTABILITY AND ALIGNMENT?

In case you are unaware, Sabana is in the process of  buying three properties and disposing 1 property. 

On a side note, please do not depend on the Monetary Authority of Singapore( MAS) to help us. They have many stakeholders whose interests MAS needs to balance while looking at the big picture. I think they are doing a good job already, having come up with a consultation paper on REITS and the issue of accountability and alignment was brought up. 

It is we, the unitholders, who must ACT as no one care more about our money than ourselves. 

REMOVAL OF THE MANAGER OF SABANA REIT

http://sabanareit.blogspot.sg/