Singapore Exchange (“SGX”) Mainboard-listed Sasseur Real Estate Investment Trust (“Sasseur REIT”), a client of investor relations (“IR”) specialist WeR1 Consultants Pte Ltd (“WeR1”), has been named Platinum winner for IR at the Asia Pacific Best of the Breeds REITs Awards™ 2020. This is the second consecutive year that Sasseur REIT has secured top IR ranking, having won the Gold award in 2019.
Sasseur REIT, which has been a retained client of WeR1 since 2019, secured a total of three awards at the annual event this week. The other two are Platinum Awards for Best Retail REIT and for Best CEO – also for the second year running. All 2019 and 2020 awards received by Sasseur REIT are for REITS under U$1 billion in market value.
The Platinum IR award cited Sasseur REIT’s prompt and informative communication of information to stakeholders, media and the community. Listed in March 2018, Sasseur REIT continues to report its financial performance on a quarterly basis. It has maintained a high level of engagement through regular virtual briefings even after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sasseur REIT closed its four retail outlet malls in China for several weeks in the early days of the pandemic. The closures coincided with falls in global stock markets in March 2020 and concerns about how retail REITs may be impacted by health concerns and changes to shopping trends.
After the release of Sasseur REIT’s Q1 2020 results, WeR1 worked with the management team to explain how it aligned the interests of mall owner, merchants and REIT holders. This mitigated the impact of the temporary mall closures on various stakeholders.
WeR1 worked closely with management to engage sell-side and buy-side (including remisiers serving retail investors) on Sasseur REIT’s unique ‘A x 1+N x DT’ formula which enshrines Sasseur REIT’s commitment to refresh mall concepts regularly to keep attracting foot traffic.
KGI Securities issued a fresh research report with an Outperform call, raising the number of sell-side coverage of the REIT to five. WeR1 also organised a virtual briefing between Sasseur REIT’s management and over 20 KGI brokers on 15 July 2020, as well as a webinar with Phillip Securities which attracted over 100 participants.
As a result of the efforts to explain the decisive response to the pandemic, Sasseur REIT received significant media coverage in 2020.
Bloomberg ran a commentary which mentioned how Sasseur REIT managed the landlord-tenant relationship differently. The Edge of Singapore carried an in-depth piece on this subject based on interviews with management. The coverage followed a prominent interview in 2019 of Sasseur’s founder and Chairman Mr Vito Xu who was featured in the “In Good Company” column of The Straits Times of Singapore.
Anthony Ang, CEO of Sasseur REIT, said: “We were very happy to receive the significant coverage, as well as the awards for the second consecutive year; Sasseur REIT has been working hard to achieve a swift recovery once lockdown measures in China were lifted, and a strong media strategy gave Sasseur REIT’s investors and analysts renewed confidence in our recovery.”
“We are also pleased to have WeR1 working alongside us to ensure our key differentiators were clearly and swiftly communicated, going the extra mile to offer strong media angles that were in-depth and engaging.”
Mr Lai Kwok Kin, Managing Director of WeR1, said: “The COVID-19 presented challenges as well as opportunities to position Sasseur REIT positively to the media and investment community. We are honoured to support the excellent and committed management team of Sasseur REIT, and are elated by successive awards they have secured.”
About WeR1 Consultants
WeR1 Consultants is a pan-Asian communications specialist in Investor Relations, Tech PR, Crisis Communications and Litigation PR based in Singapore. Our service is distinguished by a high level of strategy led by senior consultants with decades of experience in media, capital markets and communications. For more information on WeR1, please visit https://wer1.net/
About Sasseur REIT
Sasseur REIT is the first outlet mall REIT listed in Asia. Sasseur REIT offers investors with the unique opportunity to invest in the fast-growing retail outlet mall sector in the People’s Republic of China (the “PRC”) through its initial portfolio of four quality retail outlet mall assets strategically located in fast-growing cities in China such as Chongqing, Kunming and Hefei, with a net lettable area of 312,844 square metres.
Sasseur REIT is established with the investment strategy of investing principally, directly or indirectly, in a diversified portfolio of income-producing real estate which is used primarily for retail outlet mall purposes, as well as real estate-related assets in relation to the foregoing, with an initial focus on Asia. For more information on Sasseur REIT, please visit https://www.sasseurreit.com
