Nightmare of Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT)

Can Ms Jean Kam lead Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) out of dark Egypt? The past 5 years have been nothing short of a nightmare for unitholders as Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT)’s unit price plunged nearly 50% from its peak in 2021. To rub salt into injury, the DPU subsequently also peaked in 2022. The high interest costs, strong Singapore dollar and weak China market had combined to cause the free-falling DPU. It certainly looked like Ms Jean Kam had her work cut out for her.

Ms Jean Kam took over as CEO only in July 2024 after spending 17 years with Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) Management. During her tenure, both the unit price and DPU have been dropping like flies. At one point, the unit price tanked to a 5-year low of $1.03 on 9 April 2025, sparking concerns among unitholders on the financial health of the S-REIT.

For background, Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) is an S-REIT that invests in a diversified portfolio of logistics real estate in Asia Pacific with the aim of providing its unitholders with a stable distribution stream. As at 29 August 2025, it has a portfolio of 174 properties in Singapore, Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam and the total value of assets under management is $13.0 billion.

Mapletree Logistics Trust share price in crisis

Mapletree Logistics Trust sinks or swims in 2025?

Mapletree Logistics Trust share price lost its way

Mapletree Logistics Trust share price in trouble

Since that low point in April 2025, Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) unit price appeared to have bottomed. Incidentally, the recovery of the unit price coincided with Singapore government implementing measures to stimulate SGX through the release of the first tranche of Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP) amounting $1.1 billion. MLT should be one of the beneficiaries as the S-REIT is one of the STI components. Consequently, buying interests on MLT increased among retail and institutional investors.

In 2025, retail investors bought into MLT units sending the counter into the Top 10 Retail Buy in the week of 21 April ($11.7 million), 28 April ($8.8 million), 15 May ($16.7 million), 2 June ($5.3 million), 30 June ($3.8 million), 7 July ($11.9 million) and 21 July ($7.7 million). Significant purchases by institutional investors took place on 16 June ($12.6 million) and 27 October ($16.2 million).

The buying support from retail and institutional investors enabled the recovery of MLT’s unit price. However, the jury is still out on whether its light at the end of tunnel for Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) as its fundamental issues have not been fixed. So unitholders should not rejoice too soon.

Question now confronting most unitholder must be whether Ms Jean Kam will plot a rights issue to fund a massive acquisition like what Keppel REIT did earlier this year. After charging to a 3-year high of $1.10 on 28 November 2025, Keppel REIT share price got knocked down following its additional one-third stake of Marina Bay Financial Center (MBFC) Tower 3 from Hong Kong Land for a whopping $1.45 billion. To support the acquisition, Keppel REIT has launched a mega Equity Fund Raising (EFR) of $886.3 million.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. I am vested in this counter, so my views on Mapletree Logistics Trust share price may be biased.

Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) still fighting fire everywhere

There is no question that Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) is fighting fire at all fronts as DPU comes under pressure from high interest rates, ailing China assets and currency headwinds. Among the three challenges, the two poisons that give me sleepless nights are China and currency headwinds.

Currency headwind represents an immediate concern due to its damaging impact on the DPU. 9M FY25/26 gross revenue was 2.9% lower year-on-year at $531.7 million. In the absence of the distribution of divestment gains, DPU was 10.7% lower at 5.443 cents. Currency exchange is a big headache for MLT as the S-REIT collects rent in various local currencies (Yen, Won, Yuan, etc.). When those regional currencies weaken against the strong Singapore dollar, the money depreciates in value when it gets converted back to Singapore for distribution.

Although MLT claims that 74% of its income stream for the next 12 months has been hedged into Singapore dollar, the unhedged 25% still cause significant damage to its top line. But what truly makes me frustrated is the S-REIT’s rejuvenation strategy in its desperate bid to tackle the currency headwind. The management has publicly stated a target to divest roughly S$1 billion worth of assets over the next few years, with about half (S$500 million) meant to come from China and Hong Kong. Yet, the 15+ properties they’ve offloaded recently is dominated by non-China assets – older warehouse assets from Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Australia.

Despite the protracted slump in China property market, MLT has only divested one China warehouse assets so far. Presumably, its because MLT wants to avoid selling its China assets at fire-sale price. The management wants to be the last man standing and refused to sell on the low. This approach reflects poor risk management given that the percentage of China in their portfolio stays high (currently around 18-19%), meaning China continues to drag on the DPU quarter after quarter.

What is concerning for unitholders is the lack of clear action plan to address the ailing China assets. For example, during a previous AGM, there was a suggestion by one unitholder to offload some mature assets from MLT into a C-REIT to unlock value. However, this suggestion was brushed off by the management, which claimed that “MLT would require continuing presence in China as it is Asia Pacific-focused, and offloading all of MLT’s China assets into another C-REIT vehicle would diminish its Asia Pacific focus”. Instead, the management urged unitholders to keep the faith and hope for the best that its China assets would see daylight.

Financial performance

With the interest hikes since early 2022, the era of cheap money is gone. For this reason, MLT has halted its aggressive ramp up of property acquisitions in Asia. In November 2021, Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) issued a $700 million EFR to fund acquisition of 17 Grade A logistics properties. Prior to that, the S-REIT issued a $650 million EFR to fund similar spree to acquire 24 properties in China, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Instead, the S-REIT is pivoting in divesting its ageing assets to fund new properties acquisitions. In 2025, MLT completed the divestments of 6 properties, reducing its total logistics assets to 174. At its peak, MLT has 193 assets. Obviously, with the reduced assets, revenue also declined correspondingly. For 9MFY25/26, gross revenue fell 2.9% year-on-year while DPU plunged 10.7% to 5.443 cents.

Based on the latest financial report, Hong Kong (23%), Singapore (20.8%) and China (18.5%) accounted for the top 3 portfolio of MLT. The portfolio concentration in Hong Kong is especially concerning due to its proximity to China, which has suffering from protracted sluggish economic growth and property slump for the past few years. Apparently, the contagion has spread from China to Hong Kong as the occupancy for its Hong Kong assets dropped from 98% in September 2025 to 96.9% in December 2025. China continued to be the worst performer, with occupancy at 93.8%. Among the assets, those in China also continued to suffer from negative rental reversions (-2.2% at 3Q25/26).

During this period, the management reduced debts by $61 million quarter-on-quarter to $5,460 million as at 31 December 2025, via repayment of loans with divestment proceeds. The weighted average borrowing cost for 3Q FY25/26 was maintained at 2.6% per annum, while the aggregate leverage ratio was 40.7%. There is also ample liquidity with available committed credit facilities of $852 million to refinance $644 million (or 11% of total debt) debt due in FY25/26 and FY26/27

Conclusion

The change of leadership raised uncertainty on whether MLT could emerge from this dark chapter soon. After all, the new CEO is unproven and needs time to show her mettle. Based on the past 2 years, her performance is mediocre at best.

While investors may argue that the volatility of foreign currency is beyond her control, she could have grabbed the bull by the horn and rejuvenated aging foreign assets with new properties in Singapore. Also, her failure to trim China assets has led to perennial asset underperformance. During the 2024 Asia Pacific Property Conference on June 24, the manager of MLT says it wants to sell more properties in China and be more aggressive in selling. One possible scenario that I had hoped would materialize is the selling of China assets back to its Sponsor – Mapletree Investments via a development fund. However, till now, these have not materialized and MLT has only sold one asset in Xian.

I bought 16,000 shares when Mapletree Logistics Trust share price was trading at $1.96 in November 2021. Recently, I have added another 10,000 units at $1.35. With this addition, I have managed to breakeven my investment cost after factoring in all the dividends received since 2022. I am looking at divesting all my investments when the unit price reaches $1.70 and invest in CICT.

I wish all existing unitholders of MLT all the best in the coming year. Till then, enjoy the ride.