MLT share price fighting fire

Almost 5 years ago, I bought AEM and Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) shares at the same time. At that point of time, AEM was trading at a high of $5.22 while MLT share price was traded at $1.92. Fast forward 5 years, AEM shares went on a rampage to smash past a historic high of $10.40 on 29 May 2026. MLT shares? The counter had fallen off the cliff and has been on a state of perennial drunken stupor with no sight of recovery.

Some investors may argue that we should compare apple to apple. Fair enough. Let’s compare MLT with another S-REIT. From $1.92 to the current $1.20, MLT share price has plunged by a devastating 39% for the past 5 years. In comparison, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) shares increased by 11% in the same corresponding period. Given that both counters are heavyweights among the STI constituents, it is evident that MLT share price has underperformed significantly.

The declining MLT share price is truly frustrating and is largely due to poor financial performance as annual DPU consistently dropped from 9.011 cents in FY2022/23 to 7.262 cents in FY2025/26. Gross revenue has also dropped from $730 million to $708 million. What could have caused the disastrous downfall of MLT?

The mess of Mapletree Logistics Trust may be attributed to the work of the previous CEO, Ms Ng Kiat. During her 12-year tenure as CEO (from 2012 to 2024), she led the aggressive growth strategy that saw the Group pivoting in China. That was an era of cheap money and e-commerce boom. Like a kid in a candy store, Ms Ng Kiat went on an unprecedented shopping spree for MLT.

During 2020 and 2021, Ms Ng Kiat launched a total of $2.4 billion to acquire properties located across China, Malaysia and Vietnam. Her strategy relied on low global interest rates and booming Chinese consumption driven by tech giants and e-commerce giants like Alibaba and JD.com. However, the tide turned quickly when China’s economy suffered an unexpected downturn that saw massive oversupply of warehouses and weak domestic consumption.

When Ms Jean Kam took over as CEO in July 2024, MLT was already in shambolic state as MLT share price had tumbled to $1.30 and its China assets suffering from negative rental reversions. Although she had tried to launch an “asset rejuvenation” exercise to dispose underperforming assets, her biggest failure was not pruning enough the ailing China assets. Out of the $1.1 billion assets disposed to date, only 1 asset in China was divested (Xi’an).

To be fair to Ms Jean Kam, she only sold 19 assets thus far under her tenure. And of the 6 Singapore assets sold by her, they were mostly older warehouses with lease decay issues but she managed to sell them at above valuation. Using the proceeds, MLT paid down the some of the debts and reduced the borrowing costs by 3% year-on-year. At the same time, Jean also re-invest the proceeds into modern logistics assets offering higher growth potential.

However, corporate history will judge Ms Jean Kam harshly as it is a fact that MLT share price collapsed to multi-year lows under her tenure. Prior to her leadership, MLT was widely regarded as a blue-chip fortress in SGX with consistent rising DPU. All hell broke loose when Ms Jean Kam broke that all-conquering spell when DPU plunged a devastating 9.8% to 7.262 cents in the latest full-year results.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 MLT share price may be biased.

MLT share price in horror dilution

In my opinion, retail investors must be annoyed that [This is a premium article. The rest of the content is blocked and can be accessible by SG Wealth Builder Members only. To read the full content, please sign up as member.]

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