NTT has lodged preliminary prospectus to list REIT on Singapore Exchange

By Yantoultra Ngui

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) has lodged a preliminary initial public offering prospectus for its data centre real estate investment trust NTT DC REIT on the Singapore stock exchange, according to information published on the Monetary Authority of Singapore's website on Friday.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that the company was looking to lodge the prospectus with the Singapore regulator as early as this week and list on the Singapore Exchange as early as July, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.

The prospectus did not disclose the IPO amount but the two sources had said in January it could be worth up to $1 billion in what would be the largest in Singapore in several years. The prospectus also did not say when the IPO would be launched.

NTT did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Friday.

The last listing of similar size was a $977 million IPO for Digital Core REIT in 2021, LSEG data showed.

The IPO portfolio comprises six data centre assets located in the United States, Austria and Singapore, with a total appraised value of about $1.6 billion, according to the preliminary prospectus.

The sponsor of NTT DC REIT is NTT Ltd, which is part of Japanese telecommunication giant NTT.

Cornerstone investors include Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and private investment and asset management firms such as AM Squared Ltd and Viridian Asset Management Ltd, the prospectus showed.

Cornerstone investors are large institutional investors that subscribe to an IPO offering before it is open to the public.

There is growing interest from companies seeking to list on the Singapore Exchange, after the city-state announced measures in February to strengthen its equities market, including a 20% tax rebate for primary listings.

Hong Kong-listed China Medical System said on Tuesday it had applied for a secondary listing of its shares on the Singapore Exchange.

IPO proceeds raised on the Singapore Exchange surged more than five-fold to $331.6 million in the first half of this year, from $59.3 million the same period a year ago, LSEG data showed.

(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Tom Hogue)