CICT share price hit 5-year high!

What a swashbuckling form! Investors of CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) must be feeling thrilled as CICT share smashed to a 5-year high of $2.40, making it one of the best performing S-REITs. The surging CICT share price is certainly impressive given the challenges brought forth by interest rate environment and strong Singapore dollar.

After investing in Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) since 2022, one of the biggest lessons learned for me is that past performance of a company is not indicative of future results. Prior to the US Fed interest rate hikes, MLT used to ride high with increasing share prices and distributions for years. However, its misadventure in China, coupled with the high interest rates and strong Singapore dollar, led to challenging times for this STI blue chip. As I am looking for another S-REIT to diversify my portfolio, the recent revival of CICT share price caught my eye.

The last time that I covered CICT share price was in 2020. That was a period of turbulence for the S-REIT as it navigates the fallout from the devastating COVID-19. It was a particularly chaotic time to evaluate the value of CICT due to the merger of CapitaLand Mall Trust (CMT) and CapitaLand Commercial Trust (CCT). Each CCT unit was acquired at 0.720 new CMT Units and $0.2590 in cash. Consequently, 2.8 billion new CMT shares were issued.

CapitaMall Trust share price in berserk form!

CapitaMall Trust share price in explosive form!

In my 2020 article, I had expressed confidence that the merged entity would ride out the storm, notwithstanding the volatility of CICT share price as a result of the tsunami of new units issued. Five years later, I was proven right as CICT share price had survived the storm and is now riding high.

For background, CICT is the first and largest S-REIT listed on SGX with a market capitalisation of $18.2 billion as at 31 December 2025. It debuted on SGX as CapitaLand Mall Trust in July 2002 and was renamed CICT in November 2020 following the merger with CapitaLand Commercial Trust.

CICT’s portfolio comprises 21 properties in Singapore, two properties in Frankfurt, Germany, and three properties in Sydney, Australia with a total property value of $25.9 billion based on valuations of its proportionate interests in the portfolio as at 31 December 2024.

Apart from the rising CICT share price, this S-REIT stands out for its increasing DPU for the past 5 years – 8.69 cents (2020), 10.4 cents (2021), 10.58 cents (2022), 10.75 cents (2023) and 10.88 cents (2024). The consistent performance is impressive given that many S-REITs have been struggling to overcome the high interest rates in recent years. On this basis, I am confident that 2026 will see CICT dishing out a better DPU than 2025.

In this article, I will take a deep dive and share my insights on the outlook of CICT share price in 2026.

Note that this is an opinion article and not meant to be a financial advice. Please do your due diligence or engage financial advisors before investing in the stock market. Furthermore, I am not vested and have never invested in CICT before. Whether CICT share price will surge or collapse has no impact on me. Thus, this article is not meant to induce readers to make any form of investment decisions.

CICT share price is ready for 2026!

Among the S-REITs, Keppel REIT recently caused a stir in the investment community when it announced acquisition of an additional one-third stake of Marina Bay Financial Center (MBFC) Tower 3 from Hong Kong Land for a whopping $1.45 billion. To support that acquisition, Keppel REIT has launched a mega Equity Fund Raising (EFR) of $886.3 million.

Due to the size of the acquisition cost and the EFR, questions abound among unitholders if Keppel REIT has shot itself in the foot and bitten off more than it could chew instead. This is because the transaction is expected to be both DPU and unit price dilutive.

Over at CICT, the S-REIT had acquired remaining 55% of CapitaSpring in August 2025. To fund the acquisition, CICT launched private placement to raise proceeds of $600 million at issue price of $2.11 per new unit. I really like this acquisition as it strengthened CICT’s leadership position in the commercial Grade A office sector. I also like the fact that this acquisition will increase the S-REIT to Singapore’s exposure from 94% to 95%, consolidating its profile as a Singapore-centric S-REIT. This acquisition is also DPU accretive. Additionally, the fact that CICT share price continued to rise after the acquisition reflected investors’ confidence in the counter.

The acquisition of CapitaSpring came at the backdrop of tightening supply pipeline of Grade A offices in Singapore’s Downtown Core – only Shaw Tower in Beach Road and Newport Tower in Anson Road are slated for completion in 2026 and 2027, respectively. In fact, recent 90% occupancy of IOI Central Boulevard Towers, a Grade A commercial building, reflects healthy demand for office spaces in Singapore’s CBD. The tight supply pipeline, coupled with foreseeable interest rate cuts on the horizon, has led to a “flight to quality” trend, leading to 2.5% increase in office rental in the city area. Vacancy for office rentals consequently eased to 11.2% from 11.4% in the second quarter.

Located in Raffles Place with a sheltered linkway to the MRT interchange, CapitaSpring was completed in November 2021 with net lettable area of 673,300 sqf. The asset generates yield of 4% and offers stable cashflows at close to full occupancy (99.9%) as at 30 June 2025. CapitaSpring also offers DPU accretion of 1.1%.

To fund the acquisition, CICT has divested 21 Collyer Quay for $688 million on 11 November 2024. The asset is an office building located in Raffles Place with a leasehold tenure of 999 years.

ION Orchard acquisition

Prior to the acquisition of CapitaSpring in 2025, CICT enlarged its retail mall portfolio through the 50% acquisition of ION Orchard and ION Orchard Link in 2024 for a whopping $1.85 billion. The acquisition will increase CICT’s retail portfolio in Orchard Road from 14% to 25%. Post-acquisition, 57% of its retail portfolio would be in Downtown and 43% in Suburban, which comprises of evergreen assets like Bedok Mall, Tampines Mall, Junction 8, Westgate, etc.

The retail portfolio of CICT is balanced with Downtown and Suburban retail malls. The former is a key growth driver for CICT as the target consumers are tourists with luxury spending while the latter is more “defensive” as the business is driven more by necessity-based spending and tend to be less volatile. Similar to the CapitaSpring acquisition, ION Orchard was an opportunistic acquisition as there would be no new retail supply in Orchard until 2027.

I also like this acquisition because it increases its Singapore-centricity from 93.7% to 94.2%. This approach bucks the trend of other S-REITs, which tends to acquires overseas assets. An example would be Top Ryde City Shopping Centre in Sydney and various China warehouse assets by Mapletree Logistics Trust.

The acquisition of ION Orchard is expected to strengthen CICT’s retail portfolio, which has been the best performing segment. Year-to-date September 2025, the NPI for retail portfolio increased to $327.2 million vis-à-vis the $315.6 million recorded in September 2024. As at 30 September 2025, the retail portfolio also has the highest committed occupancy of 98.7%, as compared to 96.2% for office portfolio and 97.3% for Integrated Development.

Conclusion

Following the merger of CMT and CCT, CICT has survived the onslaught brought forth by the pandemic and went from strength to strength. Among its portfolio, the Suburban Retail Mall segment continued to be the defensive stalwart for CICT during this period of recovery. For example, rental reversion was 8.4% for Suburban Retail malls while its Downtown Retail malls recorded 7.4%. Its Office portfolio has also been performing well as Grade A office rents increased 2.1% in 3QFY2025 to reach $12.20 psf.

The capital management is also sound as aggregate leverage is 39.2% while average cost of debt is 3.3%. Given that 8% of the debts will mature in 2026 and 20% in 2027, I expect the cost of debt to down further as the Fed is expected to cut interest rates further this year.

Being a Singapore-centric S-REIT, CICT has benefitted from Singapore’s better-than-expected GDP growth of 4.8% in 2025. Due to its portfolio concentration, it has also escaped from the foreign currency exchange risk and China economic slump faced by various S-REITs like Mapletree Logistics Trust. In view of these factors, I am likely to take up a small position in CICT in the coming weeks. Till then, enjoy the ride.