CDL of Singapore's 2nd richest man Kwek Leng Beng to hire dedicated CEO for fund management
I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.City Developments (CDL), controlled by Singapore's second-richest man Kwek Leng Beng, announced a new three-year strategy called GET+. The plan involves hiring a dedicated CEO and management team for fund management to double assets under management (AUM) to S$10 billion by 2029. CDL also plans to divest S$6 billion in assets, deploy S$5 billion in new investments, maintain a dividend payout ratio of at least 35%, and lower net gearing to about 55%. This strategic review follows internal family disputes and aims to maximize shareholder returns.
The Singapore-listed property developer will set up a dedicated fund management entity with an investment committee and leadership team that will be directly responsible for growing assets under management, fee income, profit and loss, and investor outcomes, it said in a press release announcing the strategy called GET+ on Monday.
The move comes as it aims to double assets under management (AUM) to S$10 billion (US$7.8 billion) by 2029.
The group had around S$5 billion in AUM as of June 30, including S$3.5 billion managed through CDL Hospitality Trusts, S$1.2 billion under IReit Global and S$300 million in private funds on an attributable basis, according to The Business Times.
"Fund management will become a more significant part of CDL's capital model, comprising new and existing listed REIT platforms and an expanded private capital platform via funds, partnerships and joint ventures," the group said in the press release.
The renewed push into fund management comes after CDL's earlier goal, announced in 2018, of increasing fund-management AUM to US$5 billion by 2023 failed to materialize amid a prolonged period of high interest rates and difficult fundraising conditions.
"We were one foot in, one foot out," group CEO Sherman Kwek said at a briefing on Monday, as quoted by BT.
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| Sherman Kwek, group CEO of City Developments Limited. Photo courtesy of the company |
As part of the refreshed strategy, CDL also plans to divest S$6 billion of assets, deploy S$5 billion in new investments and set several other measurable targets, such as maintaining an annual dividend payout ratio of at least 35% of reported net profit and lowering net gearing to about 55% by 2029.
The roadmap comes out of a strategic review to maximize shareholder return that CDL announced this February, about a year after the public dispute between Sherman and his father and CDL executive chairman Leng Beng.
Sherman had said the review was "timely," given the difficulties the group faced last year, including the internal dispute.
CDL shares fell on Monday after the roadmap was unveiled, with some analysts suggesting that investors were awaiting more details on how the new strategy will be carried out and noting that some topics, including boardroom tensions, were not addressed, as cited by The Straits Times.
Other analysts took a more positive view, saying investors should welcome CDL's clearer roadmap for unlocking value and its concrete targets, which make execution measurable.
The Kweks control about 49% of CDL's shares, per Bloomberg. Forbes earlier this monthranked the family second among Singapore's richest people, estimating their combined fortune at US$16.1 billion.