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[SINGAPORE] Diversification and balance are at the left, right, and centre of Mapletree Industrial Trust’s (MIT) strategy.

At its initial public offering in 2010, the real estate investment trust’s (Reit) entire S$2.1 billion assets under management (AUM) was in Singapore industrial properties such as flatted factories, business-park buildings, ramp-up buildings and light industrial properties. As at Dec 31, 2024, only 44.1 per cent of the trust’s S$9.2 billion AUM was in Singapore industrial properties. The other 55.9 per cent was in 62 data centres (55 in the United States, one in Canada, two in Japan and four in Singapore).

“Generally for the data centre market as a whole, the demand is definitely there and is definitely growing – with all the usage of AI (artificial intelligence), machine learning, edge computing, etc,” said Lily Ler, the chief executive officer of the manager of MIT.

That said, MIT is not heading towards becoming a 100 per cent data centre Reit. “We are still looking to keep our Singapore industrial business, which provides us a stable base with some growth,” she added.

In the October to December 2024 quarter, MIT’s flatted factories were 98.1 per cent occupied. The occupancy figure for its stack-up/ramp-up buildings was 96.7 per cent; its three business-park buildings had a relatively high occupancy averaging 80.1 per cent compared with the overall 77.9 per cent for Singapore business parks.