CapLand Ascott T

Iggy’s Journal: Three Hotel Trusts Reported. One Rise Came Mostly From One Hotel

Tue 3 Nov 2026 | Midday

The Numbers

Far East Hospitality Trust’s revenue rose S$2.2 million, and about 88% of that rise came from one Nagoya hotel. CapitaLand Ascott Trust reported revenue per available unit (RevPAU) of S$164, down 1%, while its same-store operating performance rose 4%. CDL Hospitality Trusts reported gearing of 35.6%.

$CapLand Ascott T(HMN.SG) $CDL HTrust(J85.SG) 

My Personal Take

If a hotel is full every weekend, why can I still not tell whether the trust’s income is growing? That question stays with me after reading all three reports, because one trust’s rise sits mostly on a single hotel and another shows a 1% fall and a 4% rise in the same set of results. That leaves me with two questions. Is a rise concentrated in one property something to count on, and how can RevPAU and same-store performance move in opposite directions? The episode and the Substack piece go through the three trusts one at a time.

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/y-lalD1Gi8E

📩 Substack: https://investingiguana.com/p/three-hotel-trusts-reported-one-rise

Cheers,

Iggy 🦖

Not financial advice. Iggy’s Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

Iggy's Journal: Same Overseas Exposure, Very Different Damage

18 September 2026, Evening

Video Release

I used to treat "overseas exposure" as the warning label on a REIT. I don't think that's the sharp question anymore. The sharper one is which overseas bond market is actually setting the discount rate on those overseas properties, because three REITs with foreign exposure just got treated nothing alike.

The Numbers

Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust took only a 2.3 percent cut, landing at S$1.71. CapitaLand Ascott Trust and Frasers Logistics and Commercial Trust weren't nearly as fortunate, down 27.5 percent and 27.8 percent respectively. All three REITs hold property outside Singapore. The gap between a 2.3 percent hit and a 27.8 percent one isn't explained by overseas exposure alone.

What separates them is where that overseas exposure sits. Singapore's 10 year bond yield was 2.36 percent. Australia and the UK were both sitting around 5.2 percent, the US around 4.9 percent. A REIT holding assets discounted off a 2.36 percent yield is in a completely different position than one holding assets discounted off a yield more than double that.

My Personal Take

I'm not reading this as a forecast for where distributions go next. What I am taking from it is a reminder that valuation risk can show up through the bond market before anything visibly changes inside the buildings themselves. If you're holding any of these three in a CPF, SRS, or dividend portfolio, the question worth asking isn't "how much overseas exposure," it's "overseas exposure to which bond market." Full breakdown of the country-by-country math is in today's video and on Substack.

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GNdkZP9w4U

📩 Substack: https://investingiguana.com/p/why-singapores-236-bond-yield-is

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

Cheers, Iggy 🦖

Ascott at 87 cents now. Price to book ratio 0.69 and dividend yield close to 10% 😱😱😱😱😍😍😍😍😍. Anyone notice? Best buy 😆 in town. ( cyclical stock)

🦎 IGGY MORNING BRIEF, 4 AUGUST 2026

☕ Good morning, Iguanas. SGX opens at 9 am SGT. Here is what I am watching before the bell.

OVERNIGHT US SUMMARY

Wall Street rallied hard Monday. Dow up 1.32 percent to 53,178.41. S&P 500 up 1.48 percent to 7,600.50. Nasdaq up 2.13 percent to 25,913.90. Brent crude dropped nearly 5 percent after Washington signalled it would hold off on new strikes against Iran, easing inflation worry. For SGX dividend counters, cheaper oil is the more useful signal, it eases cost pressure for fuel-sensitive names more than the tech rally does.

SGX PRE-OPEN PULSE

STI closed Monday at 5,612.3, down 0.29 percent. USD/SGD sits at 1.2828. Brent at 83.77 US dollars a barrel is the number I am watching most closely into the open, a near 5 percent drop is meaningful for anything with fuel or import cost exposure.

SINGAPORE NEWS ON IGGY'S RADAR

Manufacturing PMI came in at 51.4 in July, twelfth straight month of expansion, up slightly from 51.3. Electronics PMI ticked up to 52.4, quiet steady data that supports the case for Singapore's manufacturing base holding up without needing hype. Three REITs go ex-dividend today, CapitaLand Ascott Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust at 0.834 cents, and ESR-LOGOS REIT at 1.334 cents. If you hold any of these, expect the unit price to adjust down by roughly the distribution amount at open, mechanics not signal. 

IGGY'S GAME PLAN

Cheaper oil and a calmer VIX make for a constructive open, but I am not getting swept up in Wall Street’s mega-cap tech excitement, that rally has very little to do with SGX dividend income. The PMI print is a small positive for the export side. The MAS action is a prompt to check adviser relationships, not just holdings. Nothing here moves my yield hurdle, I am still watching the same names I flagged yesterday.

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply

CLAS Kept Dividend Flat — Core Payout Dropped 10%

Your dividend payout looks steady, but the real cash flow shrank. CapitaLand Ascott Trust reported flat H1 distributions at 2.53 cents, but core DPS excluding one-off items plunged 10 percent to 2.16 cents. They covered the gap by tapping non-periodic gains, masking an 11 percent drop in net profit to 161.6 million dollars. Think of an HDB homeowner using fixed deposit savings to service a oversized mortgage while monthly salary drops. In plain terms, top-up distributions buy time, but core operational earnings pay long-term bills. 

On paper, gearing climbed to 37.7 percent, breaking my 35 percent gearing ceiling, while interest coverage dropped to 2.9 times, falling well short of my 4 times safety buffer. With RevPAU slipping 2 percent and debt costs eating cash flow, asset recycling must work faster to deleverage this balance sheet. Masking core income declines with non-periodic payouts protects immediate yields, but it does not fix structural balance sheet strain. 

This is my personal forensic read, not financial advice. Always run your own numbers before moving any CPF or SRS capital.

Starting the new week with a fresh addition to the portfolio as seen in ⁠below⁠. I’ve expanded my Singapore holdings to 6 counters by initiating a new position in Sembcorp Ind (U96) with 400 shares at a 3.17% portfolio weight. It’s currently sitting just down a tiny fraction at -0.17%, giving me a clean baseline entry into the energy and urban development sector.

Meanwhile, my existing core plays continue to show great structural resilience. SingTel (Z74) is leading the gains at +3.75%, while Mapletree Log Tr (M44U) and Genting Sing (G13) are maintaining solid ground at +3.21% and +1.63% respectively. CapLand Ascendas (A17U) holds green at +0.40%, and CapitaLandInvest (9CI) sits right at break-even (0.00%). Happy with this added diversification—holding strong and watching the momentum!

The market keeps going up with minimal pullbacks. That is a market that will run out of air at the top! Be careful everyone. I am staying defensive!

I read somewhere that for AI, one cannot just look at whether the valuation of the company is at a historic high but whether it is justified by a growing demand and at this juncture, the answer seems yes. Whether this demand can bring in profits that will be over and above the amount of capex being poured in is the crucial thing we have to keep an eye on.