REIT Watch – NTT DC REIT IPO on July 14 broadens AI-related opportunities on SGX

S-REITs with Data Centre exposure

Source: Company filings, Bloomberg (Data as of 10 July 2025)

NTT DC REIT’s mega listing, which marks one of Asia’s largest Data Centre REIT IPOs, broadens the opportunities for investors to gain exposure to assets driving the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Scheduled to commence trading at 2PM on July 14, the REIT has an IPO market capitalisation of US$1.03 billion and it will be the third pure-play data centre real estate investment trust (REIT) that is listed in Singapore.

It joins Digital Core REIT, which listed in Dec 2021, and Keppel DC REIT (KDC), which rejoined the Straits Times Index (STI) last month. In total, the pure-play Data Centre S-REITs listed on SGX provide investors with exposure to around S$9 billion of global data centre assets. 

NTT DC REIT’s portfolio comprises of six data centres – four in the United States, one in Austria and one in Singapore – with an aggregate appraised value of US$1.6 billion.   

The portfolio has a design IT load of around 90.7MW and is around 94.3 per cent occupied as of Dec 2024. It has an even mix of hyperscale and colocation customers and a weighted average lease expiry of 4.8 years. 

The REIT’s sponsor is part of the NTT Group which is the third largest data centre provider globally (excluding China).

NTT DC REIT noted in its prospectus that the global data centre market has demonstrated high growth, with commissioned power growing from 18.2GW in 2020 to 49.1GW in 2024, representing a CAGR of 28.1 per cent, and estimates are for it to continue growing at double-digit pace in the near future until 2027.

Some of the factors driving the demand for data centres include the proliferation of cloud solutions, as well as the rapid emergence of AI and generative AI in recent years. 

Based on the offer price of US$1 per unit, NTT DC REIT is projected to have an annualised distribution yield of 7.5 per cent for 9M FY26, which is higher than the trailing distribution yields of other Data Centre S-REITs.

The largest pure-play Data Centre REIT in Singapore is KDC, which has S$4.9 billion in assets under management (AUM), with 24 data centres across 10 countries. KDC’s gross revenue grew 22.6 per cent on year to S$102.2 million in 1Q25, while DPU increased by 14.2 per cent, driven by acquisitions and also due to higher contributions from contract renewals and escalations in 2024.

Digital Core REIT, meanwhile, manages US$1.7 billion in assets across 11 data centres. The REIT’s revenue rose 79.9 per cent to US$44.2 million in 1Q25, while distributable income climbed 9.9 per cent to US$11.7 million. 

Elsewhere, Mapletree Industrial Trust reported in April a 1 per cent year-on-year increase in DPU for FY24/25 to $0.1357. Net property income rose 2.0 per cent over the period, primarily due to higher contributions from Osaka Data Centre and newly acquired mixed-use facility in Tokyo as well as new leases and renewals across various Singapore properties.

The industrial REIT has around 56 per cent of its S$9.1 billion AUM belonging to data centres.

Other S-REITs that maintain some exposure to data centres include CapitaLand Ascendas Reit (CLAR), which announced in May the proposed acquisition of a data centre property in Singapore that would raise its data centre AUM to S$1.9 billion.

CapitaLand India Trust also has several data centres under development, and it expects the data centre portfolio to contribute at least 25 per cent of the trust’s revenue by 2028. 

Last month, Stoneweg Europe Stapled Trust also announced that it has made a 50 million euro investment in a fund that holds interests in early-stage data centre development sites, located in Ireland, Denmark, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.

—

Originally Posted on July 14, 2025 – REIT Watch – NTT DC REIT IPO on July 14 broadens AI-related opportunities on SGX