Temasek should publicly state its position on the long-rumoured CapitaLand-Mapletree merger

[SINGAPORE] The long-rumoured merger of CapitaLand Investment (CLI) and Mapletree Investments appears to have stalled, according to news reports last week. For some investors, this might have been something of a relief.

It was never entirely clear how a combination of the two groups would have been structured. However, with CLI’s shares down more than 8.1 per cent this year amid persistent weakness in China’s real estate sector, this does not appear to be a particularly advantageous moment for it to pursue a merger with the privately held Mapletree group.

Moreover, combining the real estate investment trusts (Reits) of CLI and Mapletree – which would logically follow a merger of the two groups – may be tricky to pull off because of their divergent market valuations.