Besides First REIT and Metro which I have held since 2008 in my CPF account, Starhill Global REIT is a holding that I have held the longest. Initially bought for its exposure of premier malls in various countries and attractive yield, it has underperformed in recent years primarily due to its lower office occupancy.
I have hoped for a recovery this year or at least see a stable DPU but its DPU continues to drop in the latest quarter report, with yield dropping to around 6%. While there are signs for a better performance in the second half of the year, I decided to divest this and channel the money to other REITs such as Frasers Logistic Trust and Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust which have greater near term visibility.
Based on total cost invested (at various periods), this investment (including dividend) has returned 38.5% over the 6 years. A very rough and inaccurate computation shows that the return is about 6% annually. Nothing fantastic but a decent return. Of course the return would have been better if I had divested all when the REIT started to have problem 2 years ago but again that is hindsight. Rewind the time, I would probably have made the same decision with the information that I had.
I do hope that the Starhill will report better numbers for the rest of the year and whoever is holding on to the shares continue to huat!
Towards Financial Independence 