[SINGAPORE] Property player Perennial Holdings is exploring real estate investment trust (Reit) listings in China – one for commercial properties and another for healthcare assets, the company’s chief executive, Pua Seck Guan, told The Business Times.
The Reits, which could be listed in Shanghai or Shenzhen, would ride on booming demand from yield-hungry investors on the mainland.
“The Chinese love this class of assets. If you go and do a check today, the Chinese Reit yield is below 5 per cent; in Singapore, it’s more than 7 per cent,” said Pua in an interview at the company’s one-north office.
With deposit rates under 1 per cent, Chinese investors are hunting for dividends. “So if you give them 4 to 5 per cent (in yield), they will be very happy,” the CEO said, adding that there is demand from both retail and institutional investors.
Founded in 2009, Perennial has five healthcare-centric mega developments in China – in Chengdu, Kunming, Xi’an, Chongqing and Tianjin – and a commercial-focused one in Hangzhou, among other assets.
It also operates China’s first fully foreign-owned hospital in Tianjin, has another coming up in Guangzhou, and is invested in major eldercare company Renshoutang.
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Reits were introduced in China in 2021, and demand has been “stratospheric”, according to a Bloomberg report in February. There were 28 Reits listed in China last year – nearly trebling from the number in 2023 – which raised a record 64 billion yuan (S$11.4 billion).
Perennial may also consider listing its healthcare business in Hong Kong or mainland China, said Pua.
The company, which traded on the Singapore Exchange from 2014 to 2020, has no plans to pursue listings here. Pua cited liquidity and valuations as concerns, along with the fact that the majority of Perennial’s business is now in China.
The company began its foray into China healthcare a decade ago with the opening of a medical hub in Chengdu. It now owns and operates more than 25,000 beds in medical and eldercare facilities in Singapore and China.
In Singapore, Perennial, together with Far East Organization, is redeveloping Golden Mile Complex. There will be medical suites, offices, retail spaces and a residential tower. The company is also heading a consortium that is redeveloping the former AXA Tower in Shenton Way.
First-mover advantage
Perennial’s listing plans come on the back of big ambitions to expand in China’s medical and eldercare sectors.
In late 2024, it announced the 500-bed Perennial General Hospital Tianjin, the first such facility to be fully foreign-owned in China, with a one billion yuan investment. Months later, it inked a deal to build a second fully foreign-owned hospital in Guangzhou, also with a one billion yuan investment.
Perennial is now concluding talks to open another fully foreign-owned hospital in Shanghai, said Pua.
Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shanghai are among the nine trial cities where China has allowed fully foreign-owned hospitals to operate, in a pilot announced in September 2024. The other trial cities are Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Fuzhou, Shenzhen and Hainan.
Pua hopes to do projects in more than half of these nine cities. “We think the Chinese medical (sector) is just at a very nascent stage… The market is huge, so we want to seize this opportunity. I think we have a first-mover advantage.”
He sees the Chinese authorities being supportive of private operators such as Perennial that can service the medical needs of the upper middle class segment.
The company also wants to ride on China’s emerging medical tourism industry. It hopes to attract patients from Russia, Central Asia and South-east Asia – including Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, said Pua.
He views Guangzhou as an ideal location for medical tourism, due to its good air connectivity, infrastructure and weather.
Perennial’s rehabilitation facilities could also be a pull factor, with their combination of Western and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), he added.
That said, he acknowledged that the more challenging part is attracting patients who are willing to undertake surgery, and emphasised the need to build trust and reputation.
Perennial’s Tianjin general hospital aims to have 30 per cent of its revenue come from international patients within its first year, said its president, Dr Daniel Liu.
“Medical tourism can’t yet be called an industry in China; there are some signs, but not yet. What we hope to do now is to make this cake bigger,” he said during a tour of the hospital.
Dr Liu believes that the hospital could even attract patients from the UK, where waiting times for surgeries are long. Some of China’s specialised medical services – such as cardiology, orthopaedics and urology – are competitive with international peers, he said.
“Very aggressive”
Perennial is “actually very aggressive” with its expansion plans, said Tan Bee Lan, the company’s healthcare chief executive, on the sidelines of a visit to a Renshoutang facility in Shanghai.
Asked about the timing of the moves – amid global uncertainty and weak consumer spending in China – Tan said that she does not see a “material effect”, given the counter-cyclical nature of healthcare.
There is also an opportunity to secure assets at attractive valuations. “You should take projects when no one wants to do them – that is when you get the land, the property, at a very reasonable price… This is what Perennial is doing. We’re going around very aggressively, looking at suitable properties to take over,” she said.
Perennial also plans to apply what it has learnt in Tianjin to an upcoming Singapore project: the city-state’s first private assisted-living development, for which the company won a tender in June 2023.
Said Pua: “To be honest, it’s very, very difficult to make money in Singapore because of the high real estate costs, the high labour costs… But I think being headquartered in Singapore, we thought (it would be) good to do something and (showcase) a model.”
“So this project will contain the ingredients that we have in Tianjin,” he added, citing how the development in Parry Avenue will also integrate eldercare with TCM rehabilitation and a geriatric care centre.
With the Tianjin hospital opening more doors, Pua believes that the company is two to three years “ahead of anybody” in its expansion plans. “I’m excited,” he said.
Perennial’s key shareholders include agribusiness Wilmar International – where Pua is also chief operating officer – and Wilmar co-founder Kuok Khoon Hong.
