Hektar Reit in talks to buy a retail asset

KUALA LUMPUR: Hektar Real Estate Investment Trust (Hektar REIT) is currently in active negotiations with a retail asset, as part of its acquisition strategy.

Hektar Asset Management Sdn Bhd executive director and CEO Datuk Hisham Othman declined to divulge further, but reiterated that the Reit’s strategy is to own geographically diverse malls that are yield accretive.

“This strategy has been proven well, and the future malls that we acquire will most likely be situated outside the Klang Valley, which are saturated with overbuilt malls or retail assets.

“We like malls that are market leaders in their locality, being the number one or only mall in town.

“We are looking at several malls to see which assets would meet our criteria,” he said.

Hektar Reit considers retail properties with yields of 6% to 7% to be acceptable.

Apart from that, Hektar Reit takes into consideration the percentage of ownership, land title status and tenure of the retail assets it looks to acquire.

The Reit is on track to double its assets value to RM2.4bil by 2026.

At present, there are six shopping centres with two million square feet of retail space, valued at RM1.2bil under the portfolio, catering to a market catchment of three million shoppers.

Hektar Reit’s portfolio of commercial properties includes Subang Parade, Mahkota Parade in Melaka, Wetex Parade & Classic Hotel in Muar, Central Square in Sg Petani, Kulim Central and Segamat Central.